A Christian Directory

Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Trusts and Secrets.

Quest. 1. HOw are we forbidden to put our Trust in man? And how may it be done?

Answ. 1. You must not trust man for more than his proportion, and what belongs to man to do: You must not expect that from him which God alone can do. 2. You must not trust a bad unfaithful man to do that which is proper to a good and faithful man to do. 3. You must not trust the best man being imperfect and fallible, as fully as if you supposed him perfect and infallible: But having to do with a corrupted world we must live in it with some measure of distrust to all men (For all that Cicero thought this contrary to the Laws of friendship). But especially ignorant, dishonest and fraudulent men must be most distrusted. As Bucholtzer said to his friend that was going to be a Courtier, Commendo tibi fidem diabolorum, Crede & Contremisce: He that converseth with diabolical men, must believe them no further than is due to the children of the Father of Lyes. But we must trust men as men, according to the principles of Veracity that are left in corrupted nature: And we must trust men so far as reason showeth us cause, from their skill, fidelity, honesty or interest: So a Surgeon, a Physician, a Pilot may be trusted with our lives: And the skilfuller and faithfuller any man is, the more he is to be trusted.

Quest. 2. Whom should a man choose for a matter of trust?

Answ. As the matter is: One that hath wisdom, skill and fidelity, through conscience, honesty, friendship or his own apparent interest.

Quest. 3. In what cases may I commit a secret to another?

Answ. When there is a necessity of his knowing it, or a greater probability of good than hurt by it, in the evidence which a prudent man may see.

Quest. 4. What if another commit a thing to me with charge of secrecy, and I say nothing to him, and so promise it not: Am I bound to secrecy in that case?

Answ. If you have cause to believe that he took your silence for consent, and would not else have committed it to you, you are obliged in point of fidelity, as well as friendship: except it be with robbers or such as we are not bound to deal openly with, and on terms of equality.

Quest. 5. What if it be a secret, but I am under no Command or Promise at all about it?

Answ. You must then proceed according to the Laws of Charity and Friendship: and not reveal that which is to the injury of another, without a greater cause.

Quest. 6. What if it be against the King, or State, or common good?

Answ. You are bound to reveal it, so far as the safety of the King, or State, or common good requireth it: Yea, though you swear the contrary.

Quest. 7. What if it be only against the good of some third ordinary person?

Answ. You must endeavor to prevent his wrong, either by revealing the thing, or dissuading from it, or by such means as prudence shall tell you is the meetest way, by exercising your love to one, without doing wrong to the other.

Quest. 8. What if a man secretly entrust his estate to me, for himself or children, when he is in debt, to defraud his Creditors?

Answ. You ought not to take such a trust: And if you have done it, you ought not to hold it, but resign it to him that did entrust you. Yea, and to disclose the fraud, for the righting of the Creditors, except it be in such a case as that the Creditor is some such vicious or oppressing person, as you are not obliged to exercise that act of charity for; or when the consequents of revealing it, will be a greater hurt, than the righting of him will compensate; especially when it is against the public good.

Quest. 9. What if a delinquent entrust me with his estate or person to secure it from penalty?

Answ. If it be one that is prosecuted by a due course of Justice, cujus poena debetur reipublicae, whose punishment the common good requireth, the case must be decided as the former: You must not take, nor keep such a trust. But if it be one whose Repentance giveth you reason to believe, that his impunity will be more to the common good than his punishment, and that if the Magistrate knew it, he ought to spare or pardon him, in this case you may conceal his person or estate; so be it you do it not by a lie, or any other sinful means, or such as will do more hurt than good.

Quest. 10. What if a friend entrust me with his estate to secure it from some great taxes or tributes to the King? May I keep such a trust or not?

Answ. No; if they be just and legal taxes, for the maintenance of the Magistrate or preservation of the Common-wealth: But if it were done by a Usurper that had no authority, (or done without or beyond authority, to the oppressing of the subject, you may conceal his estate or your own) by lawful means.

Quest. 11. What if a man that suffereth for Religion, commit his person or estate to my trust?

Answ. You must be faithful to your trust, 1. If it be true Religion and a good cause for which he suffereth. 2. Or if he be falsely accused of abuses in Religion: 3. Or if he be faulty; but the penalty intended from which you secure him is incomparably beyond his fault, and unjust. Supposing still that you save him only by lawful means, and that it be not like to tend to do more hurt than good, to the cause of Religion or the Common-wealth.

Quest. 12. What if a Papist or other erroneous person, entrust me (being of the same mind) to educate his Children in that way when he is dead? and afterwards I come to see the error, must I perform that trust or no?

Answ. No: 1. Because no trust can oblige you to do hurt: 2. Because it is contrary to the primary intent of your friend; which was his Children's good. And you may well suppose that had he seen his error, he would have entrusted you to do accordingly: You are bound therefore to answer his primary intention, and truly to endeavor his Children's good.

Quest. 13. But what if a man to whom another hath entrusted his Children, turn Papist or Heretic, and so thinketh error to be truth? what must he do.

Answ. He is bound to turn back again to the truth, and do accordingly.

Obj. But one saith this is the truth and another that; And he thinketh he is right.

Answ. There is but one of the contraries true. Men's thinking themselves to be in the right, doth not make it so: And God will not change his Laws, because they misunderstand or break them: Therefore still that which God bindeth them to is to return unto the truth? And if they think that to be truth which is not, they are bound to think otherwise. If you say, They cannot, It is either not true, or it is long of themselves that they cannot: And they that cannot immediately, yet mediately can do it, in the due use of means.

Quest. 14. What if I foresee that the taking of a trust may hazard my estate, or otherwise hurt me, and yet my dying (or living) friend desireth it?

Answ. How far the Law of Christianity or friendship oblige you to hurt yourself for his good must be discerned by a prudent considering, what your obligations •• e to the person, and whether the good of your granting his desires, or the hurt to yourself is like to be the greater, and of more public consequence: And whether you injure not your own Children or others by gratifying him: And upon such comparison prudence must determine the case.

Quest. 15. But what if afterward the trust prove more to my hurt than I foresaw?

Answ. If it was your own fault that you foresaw it not, you must suffer proportionably for that fault: But otherwise you must compare your own hurt with the Orphans in case you do not perform the trust: And consider whether they may not be relieved another way: And whether you have reason to think that if the Parent were alive and knew your danger, he would expect you should perform your trust, or would discharge you of it. If it be some great and unexpected dangers, which you think upon good grounds the Parent would acquit you from if he were living, you fulfill your trust, if you avoid them, and do that which would have been his will if he had known it. Otherwise you must perform your promise though it be to your loss and suffering?

Quest. 16. But what if it was only a trust imposed by his desire and will, without my acceptance or promise to perform it?

Answ. You must do as you would be done by, and as the common good, and the Laws of love and friendship do require. Therefore the quality of the person, and your obligations to him, and especially the comparing of the consequent good and evil together must decide the case.

Quest. 17. What if the surviving kindred of the Orphan be nearer to him than I am, and they censure me and calumniate me as injurious to the Orphan, may I not ease myself of the trust, and cast it upon them?

Answ. In this case also, the measure of your suffering must first be compared with the measure of the Orphans good? And then your Conscience must tell you whether you verily think the Parent who entrusted you, would discharge you if he were alive and knew the case: If he would, though you promised, it is to be supposed that it was not the meaning of his desire or your promise, to incur such sufferings: And if you believe that he would not discharge you, if he were alive, then if you promised you must perform; But if you promised not, you must go no farther than the Law of love requireth.

Quest. 18. What is a Minister of Christ to do, if a penitent person confess secretly some heinous or capital crime to him (as Adultery, theft, robbery, murder): Must it be concealed or not?

Answ. 1. If a purpose of sinning be antecedently confessed, it is unlawful to farther the crime, or give opportunity to it by a concealment: But it must be so far opened as is necessary for the prevention of another's wrong, or the persons sin: Especially if it be Treason against the King, or Kingdom, or anything against the common good.

2. When the punishment of the offender is apparently necessary to the good of others, especially to right the King or Country, and to preserve them from danger by the offender or any other, it is a duty to open a past fault that is confessed, and to bring the offender to punishment, rather than injure the innocent by their impunity.

3. When Restitution is necessary to a person injured, you may not by concealment hinder such Restitution; but must procure it to your power where it may be had.

4. It is unlawful to promise universal secrecy absolutely to any penitent. But you must tell him before he confesseth [If your crime be such as that opening it is necessary to the preservation or righting of King, or Country, or your Neighbor, or to my own safety, I shall not conceal it.] That so men may know how far to trust you.

5. Yet in some rare cases, (as the preservation of our Parents, King, or Country) it may be a duty to promise and perform concealment, when there is no hurt like to follow but the loss or hazard of our own lives, or liberties or estates: And consequently if no hurt be like to follow but some private loss of another, which I cannot prevent without a greater hurt.

6. If a man ignorant of the Law and of his own danger, have rashly made a promise of secrecy, and yet be in doubt, he should open the case in hypothesi only to some honest able Lawyer, enquiring if such a case should be, what the Law requireth of the Pastor, or what danger he is in if he conceal it: that he may be able farther to judge of the case.

7. He that made no promise of secrecy, virtual or actual, may caeteris paribus bring the offender to shame or punishment rather than fall into the like himself for the concealment.

8. He that rashly promised universal secrecy, must compare the penitents danger and his own, and consider whose suffering is like to be more to the public detriment all things considered, and that must be first avoided.

9. He that findeth it his duty to reveal the crime to save himself, must yet let the penitent have notice of it, that he may fly and escape; unless as aforesaid, when the Interest of the King or Country or others, doth more require his punishment.

10. But when there is no such necessity of the offenders punishment, for the prevention of the hurt or wrong of others, nor any great danger by concealment to the Minister himself, I think that the Crime, though it were capital, should be concealed: My reasons are,

• 1. Because though every man be bound to do his best to prevent sin, yet every man is not bound to bring offenders to punishment: He that is no Magistrate, nor hath a special call so to do, may be in many cases not obliged to it.
• 2. It is commonly concluded that (in most cases) a capital offender is not bound to bring himself to punishment: And that which you could not know but by his free Confession, and is confessed to you only on your promise of concealment, seemeth to me to put you under no other obligation to bring him to punishment, than he is under himself.
• 3. Christ's words and practice, in dismissing the Woman taken in Adu • tery showeth that it is not always a duty, for one that is no Magistrate to prosecute a capital offender, but that sometime his repentance and life may be preferred.
• 4. And Magistrates pardons showeth the same.
• 5. Otherwise no sinner would have the benefit of a Counselor to open his troubled Conscience to: For if it be a duty to detect a great crime in order to a great punishment, why not a less also in order to a less punishment. And who would confess, when it is to bring themselves to punishment.

11. In those Countries where the Laws allow Pastors to conceal all crimes that penitents freely confess, it is left to the Pastors judgment to conceal all that he discerneth may be concealed without the greater injury of others, or of the King or Common-wealth.

12. There is a knowledge of the faults of others, by Common • ame, especially many years after the committing, which doth not oblige the hearers to prosecute the offender. And yet a crime publicly known is more necessarily to be punished (lest impunity embolden others to the like) than an unknown crime, revealed in Confession.

Tit. 2. Directions about Trusts and Secrets.

Direct. 1. BE not rash in receiving secrets, or any other trusts: But first consider what you are thereby obliged to, and what difficulties may arise in the performance; and foresee all the consequents as far as is possible, before you undertake the trust; that you cast not yourselves into snares by mere inconsiderateness, and prepare not for perplexities and repentance.

Direct. 2. Be very careful what persons you commit either trusts or secrets to: And be sure they be trusty by their wisdom, ability and fidelity.

Direct. 3. Be not too forward in revealing your own secrets to another's trust: For, 1. You cannot be certain of any ones secrecy, where you are most confident. 2. You oblige yourself too much to please that person, who by revealing your secrets may do you hurt: And are in fear lest carelessness, or unfaithfulness or any accident should disclose it. 3. You burden your friend with the charge and care of secrecy.

Direct. 4. Be faithful to your friend that doth entrust you; remembering that perfidiousness or falseness to a friend, is a crime against humanity, and all society, as well as against Christianity; and stigmatizeth the guilty in the eyes of all men, with the brand of an odious unsociable person.

Direct. 5. Be not intimate with too many, nor confident in too many: For he that hath too many intimates, will be opening the secrets of one to another.

Direct. 6. Abhor Covetousness and ambition: Or else a bribe or the promise of preferment, will tempt you to perfidiousness. There is no trusting a selfish worldly man.

Direct. 7. Remember that God is the avenger of perfidiousness, who will do it severely: And that even they that are pleased and served by it, do yet secretly disdain and detest the person that doth it: because they would not be so used themselves.

Direct. 8. Yet take not friendship or fidelity to be an obligation to perfidiousness to God or the King or Common-wealth or to another, or to any sin whatsoever.

Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Loving our Neighbor.

Quest. 1. IN what sense is it that I must love my neighbor as myself? Whether in the kind of love, or in the degree, or only in the reality?

Answ. The true meaning of the Text is, You must love him according to his true worth, without the diversion and hindrance of selfishness and partiality. As you must love yourself according to that degree of Goodness which is in you, and no more; so must you as impartially love your neighbor according to that degree of Goodness which is in him. So that it truly extendeth to the reality, the kind and the degree of love, supposing it in both proportioned to the goodness of the object. But before this can be understood, the true nature of Love must be well understood.

Quest. 2. What is the true Nature of Love, both as to myself and neighbor?

Answ. Love is nothing but the prime motion of the Will to its proper object: which is called Complacence: The object of it is simple Goodness; or Good as such: It ariseth from suitableness between the Object and the Will, as appetite doth from the suitableness of the appetent faculty and the food. This GOOD as it is variously modified, or any way differeth, doth accordingly cause or require a difference in our Love: Therefore that Love which in its prime act and nature is but one, is diversely denominated, as its objects are diversified. To an object as simply Good in itself, it followeth the Understandings Estimation, and is called, as I said, mere Complacence or Adhesion: To an Object as not yet attained, but absent, or distant, and attainable, it is called Desire, or Desiring Love: And as expected, Hope, or Hoping Love (which is a conjunction of Desire and Expectation ): To an object nearest and attained, it is called, Fruition, or Delight, or Delighting Love. To an object which by means must be attained, it is called, seeking love, as it exciteth to the use of those means: And to an object missed it is by accident, Mourning Love. But still Love itself in its essential act is one and the same. As it respecteth an object which wanteth something to make it perfect, and desireth the supply of that want, it is called Love of Benevolence; denominated from this occasion, as it desireth to do good to him that is loved. And it is a Love of the same nature which we exercise towards God, who needeth nothing, as we rejoice in that perfection and happiness which he hath; though it be not to be called properly by the same name. Goodness being the true object of Love, is the true measure of it: And therefore God who is infinitely and primitively good, is the prime and only simple object of our absolute total Love. And therefore those who understand no Goodness in any being, but as profitable to them, or to some other creature, do know no God, nor Love God as God, nor have any Love but selfish and Idolatrous. By this you may perceive the nature of Love.

Quest. 3. But may none be loved above the measure of his Goodness? How then did God love us when we were not, or were his enemies? And how must we love the wicked? And how must an ungodly person love himself?

Answ. If only Good as such, be the object of Love, then certainly none should be loved but in proportion to his Goodness. But you must distinguish between mere natural and sensitive Love or appetite, and Rational Love; and between Love, and the Effects of Love; and between Natural Goodness in the object and Moral Goodness. And so I further answer, 1. There is in every man a natural and sensitive love of himself and his own pleasure and felicity, and an averseness to death and pain and sorrow, as there is in every Bruit: And this God hath planted there for the preservation of the creature. This falleth not under commands or prohibitions directly, because it is not free but necessary: as no man is commanded or forbidden to be hungry, or thirsty, or weary, or the like: It is not this Love which is meant when we are commanded to Love our neighbor as ourselves: For I am not commanded to feel hunger and thirst, nor to desire meat or drink by the sensitive appetite for my neighbor: Nor sensitively to feel his pain or pleasure, nor to have that natural aversation from death and pain, nor sensitive desire of life and pleasure, for him as for myself. But the Love here spoken of, is that Volition with the due affection conjunct, which is our Rational Love; as being the act of our highest faculty, and falling under God's command. As to the sensitive Love, it proceedeth not upon the sense or estimate of Goodness in the person who loveth himself or any other (as Beasts love their young ones without respect to their excellency). But it is Rational Love which is proportioned to the estimated Goodness of the thing beloved. 2. Physical Goodness may be in an object which hath no Moral Goodness; and this may contain a capacity of moral goodness: And each of them is amiable according to its nature and degree. 3. Beneficence is sometimes an effect of Love, and sometime an effect of wisdom only as to the object, and of Love to something else: but it is never Love itself. Usually benevolence is an act of Love, and beneficence an effect, but not always. I may do good to another without any love to him, for some ends of my own, or for the sake of another. And a man may be obliged to greater beneficence, where he is not obliged to greater Love.

And now to the instances, I further answer, 1. When we had no being, God did not properly love us in esse reali (unless you will go to our co-existence in eternity: For we were not in esse reali: ) But only as we were in esse cognito: which is but to love the Idea in himself: But he purposed to make us, and to make us lovely, and to do us good; and so he had that which is called Amor benevolentiae, to us: which properly was not Love to us, but a Love to himself, and the Idea in his own eternal mind, which is called a Loving us in esse cognito, and a purpose to make us good and lovely: That which is not Lovely is not an object of Love: Man was not Lovely indeed, when he was not: Therefore he was not an object of Love: (but in esse cognito. ) The same we say of God's loving us when we were enemies: He really loved us with complacency, so far as our Physical goodness made us lovely: And as morally lovely he did not love us, otherwise than in esse cognito. But he purposed to make us morally lovely, and gave us his mercies to that end; and so loved us with a Love of benevolence as it is called: which signifieth no more than out of a complacence (or Love) to himself, and to us, as Physically good, to purpose to make us morally good and happy. As to the incident difficulty of Love beginning de novo in God, I have fully resolved it elsewhere.

2. So also we must Love a wicked man with a Love of benevolence: which properly is but to love him in his physical worth, and his capacity of moral goodness and happiness, and thereupon, (but especially through the Love of God) to desire his happiness.

3. And as to the loving of ourselves, (Besides the sensitive Love before mentioned which respecteth self as self, and not as Good, ) a wicked man may rationally love himself according to his physical goodness as a man, which containeth his capacity of moral goodness, and so of being holy and serviceable to God and to good men, and happy in the fruition of God. But beyond all such Goodness (which only is amiableness ) no man may rationally love himself or any other, with the true formal act of Love, which is complacence: Though he may wish good to himself or another beyond the present goodness which is in them; nay, he wisheth them good, not because they have it, but because they have it not. And he may be bound to do good, not because they are good, but because they want good.

And though some define Loving, to be been velle alicui ut illi been sit, to desire another's welfare, yet indeed this may be without any true formal Love at all. As I may desire the welfare of my Horse, without any proper love to him, even for myself and use. When God from eternity willeth to make Paul, and to convert and save him, ut illi been sit, it is called Love of benevolence: But properly it is only to be called, A will to make Paul good and lovely; It being only God himself who is the original and ultimate end of that will and purpose; and himself only which he then loveth; there being nothing but himself to Love: till in that instant that Paul is existent, and so really lovely. For Paul in esse cognito is not Paul: Yet no reality doth oriri de novo in God; but a new respect and denomination, and in the creature new effects. (Of which elsewhere).

Quest. 4. Must I love everyone as much as myself in degree, or only some?

Answ. You must love everyone impartially as yourself, according to his goodness: and you must wish as well to everyone, as to yourself: But you must love no man complacentially so much as yourself, who is not or seemeth not to have as much loveliness, that is, as much goodness, or as much of God, as yourself.

Quest. 5. Must I love any one more than myself?

Answ. Yes; everyone that is and appeareth better that yourself. Your sensitive Love to another cannot be as much as to yourself: And your beneficence (ordinarily) must be most to yourself, because God in nature and his Laws hath so appointed it: And your benevolence to yourself and to others must be alike: But your rational estimation, and Love or complacence (with the honor and praise attending it) must be more to everyone that is better than yourself: For that which is best is most amiable: and that which hath most of God.

Quest. 6. Will it not then follow that I must love another man's wife and children better than my own, when they are really better?

Answ. Yes, no doubt; but it is only with that rational estimative Love! But there is besides a Love to Wife and Children, which is in some measure sensitive, which you are not obliged to give to others: And rationally they are more amiable to you, in their peculiar relations and respects, though others are more amiable in other respects: And besides, though you value and rationally love another more, yet the expressions must not be the same: For those must follow the Relation according to God's command. You may not cohabite nor embrace, nor maintain and provide for others as your own, even when you rationally love them more: The common good requires this order in the expressive part; as well as God's command.

Quest. 7. Who is my neighbor whom I must love as myself?

Answ. Not Devils nor damned souls, who are under justice and from under mercy, and are none of our society: But, 1. Every natural man in via being a member of God's Kingdom in the same world, is to be loved as my natural self: And every spiritual man as a member of the same Kingdom of Christ, must be loved as my spiritual self: And every spiritual man as such, above my natural self as such: And no natural man as such, so much as my spiritual self as such: so that no man on earth is excluded from your love, which must be Impartial to all as to your self, but proportioned to their goodness.

Quest. 8. Is not Antichrist and those that sin against the Holy Ghost excepted out of this our Love, and out of our prayers and endeavors of their good?

Answ. Those that (with Zanchi ) think Mahomet to be Antichrist, may so conclude, because he is dead and out of our Communion. Those that take the Papacy to be Antichrist (as most Protestants do) cannot so conclude: Because as there is but one Antichrist, that is, one Papacy, though an hundred Popes be in that seat, so everyone of those Popes is in via and under mercy, and recoverable out of that condition: And therefore is to be loved and prayed for accordingly. And as for those that blaspheme the Holy Ghost, it is a sin that one man cannot certainly know in another, ordinarily at least; and therefore cannot characterize a person unfit for our love, and prayers, and endeavors.

Quest. 9. May we not hate the enemies of God? How then must we love them as ourselves?

Answ. We may and must hate sin in everyone: And where it is predominant, as God is said to hate the sinner for his sin, so must we: And yet still love him as ourselves: For you must hate sin in yourselves as much or more than in any other: And if you are wicked you must hate yourselves, as such: Yea if you are Godly, you must secundum quid, or in that measure as you are sinful, abhor and loath and hate yourselves as such: And yet you must Love yourselves according to the measure of all that Natural and Moral Goodness which is in you: And you must desire and endeavor all the good to yourselves that you can. Just so must you hate and love another: Love them and hate them impartially as you must do your selves.

Quest. 10. May I not wish hurt sometimes to another, more than to myself?

Answ. You may wish a mediate hurt which tendeth to his good, or to the good of others; but you must never wish any final hurt and misery to him. You may wish your friend a vomit or blood-letting for his cure: And you may wish him some affliction, when it is needful and apt to humble him and do him good, or to restrain him from doing hurt to others: And on the same accounts, and for the public good, you may desire penal Justice to be done upon him; yea sometimes unto death: But still with a desire of the saving of his soul. And such hurt you may also wish yourself as is necessary to your good: But you are not to wish the same penalties to yourself, 1. Because you have somewhat else his • to wish and do, even to repent and prevent it. 2. Because you are not bound ordinarily to do execution upon yourself. It is more in your power to repent yourself, and make penalty less necessary by humble confession and amendment, than to bring another to repentance. Yet I may add also, that hypothetically you may wish that destruction to the enemies of God in this life, which absolutely you may not wish. That is, you must desire first that they may repent, and secondly that they may be restrained from hurting others: But if neither of these may be attained, that they may be cut off.

Tit. 2. Directions for Loving our Neighbors as ourselves.

Direct. 1. TAke heed of selfishness and Covetousness, the two great Enemies of Love: of which I have spoken more at large before.

Direct. 2. Fall out with no man: or if you do, be speedily reconciled: For passions and dissensions are the extinguishers of love.

Direct. 3. Love God truly, and you will easily Love your Neighbor: For you will see God's Image on him, or interest in him, and feel all his precepts and mercies obliging you hereunto. As 1 John. 3. 11, 23. & 4. 7, 12, 20, 21.

Direct. 4. To this end let Christ be your continual study. He is the full revelation of the Love of God; the lively pattern of love, and the best teacher of it that ever was in the world: His incarnation, life and sufferings, his Gospel and Covenant, his intercession and preparations for our heavenly felicity, all are the great demonstrations of condescending matchless love. Mark both God's Love to us in him, and his Love to man; and you will have the best directive and incentive of your Love.

Direct. 5. Observe all the good which is in every man: Consider of the good of Humanity in his nature; and the goodness of all that truth which he confesseth; and of all that moral good which appeareth in his heart and life. And let not oversight, or partiality cause you to overlook it, or make light of it. For it is Goodness which is the only attractive of Love: And if you overlook men's goodness you cannot love them.

Direct. 6. Abhor and beware of a censorious disposition, which magnifieth men's faults, and vilifieth their virtues, and maketh men seem worse than indeed they are. For as this cometh from the want of love, so doth it destroy that little which is left.

Direct. 7. Beware of superstition and an erring judgment, which maketh men place Religion where God never placed it. For when this hath taught you to make duties and sins of your own humor and invention, it will quickly teach you to love or hate men accordingly as they fit or cross your opinion and humor: Thus many a Papist loveth not those that are not subjects of the Roman Monarch, and that follow not all his irrational fopperies. Many an Anabaptist loveth not those that are against his opinion of rebaptizing: One loveth not those who are for Liturgies, Forms of Worship and Church-music; and many love not those who are against them: And so of other things (of which more anon.)

Direct. 8. Avoid the company of censorious backbiters and proud contemners of their brethren: Hearken not to them that are causelessly vilifying others: aggravating their faults and extenuating their virtues. For such proud supercilious persons (religious or profane) are but the messengers of Satan, by whom he entreateth you to hate your Neighbor, or abate your love to him. And to hear them speak evil of others, is but to go hear a Sermon against Charity; which may take with such hearts as ours before we are aware.

Direct. 9. Keep still the motives and incentives of Love upon your minds: Which I shall here next set before you.

Tit. 3. The Reasons or Motives of Love to our Neighbor.

Mot. 1. COnsider well of the Image and interest of God in man. The worst man is his Creature, and hath his natural Image, though not his Moral Image: And you should love the work for the workmans sake. There is something of God upon all human nature above the bruits: It is intelligent, and capable of knowing him, of loving him and of serving him: And possibly may be brought to do all this better than you can do it. Undervalue nor the noble nature of man, nor overlook not that of God which is upon them, nor the interest which he hath in them.

Mot. 2. Consider well of God's own Love to man: He hateth their sins more than any of us: and yet he loveth his workmanship upon them: and maketh his sun to shine and his rain to fall, on the evil and on the good, on the just and on the unjust, Matth. 5. 45. And what should more stir us up to Love, than to be like to God?

Mot. 3. And think oft of the Love of Christ unto mankind; yea even unto his enemies: can you have a better example? a livelyer incentive, or a surer guide?

Mot. 4. Consider of our Unity of Nature with all men: suitableness breedeth and maintaineth love. Even Birds and Beasts do love their kind: And man should much more have a love to man, as being of the same specific form?

Mot. 5. Love is the principle of doing good to others. It inclineth men to beneficence. And all men call him good who is inclined to do good.

Mot. 6. Love is the bond of all Societies: Of Families, Cities, Kingdoms and Churches: Without Love, they will be but enemies conjunct: who are so much the more hurtful and p • rnicious to each other, by how much they are nearer to each other: The soul of Societies is gone when Love is gone.

Mot. 7. Consider why it is that you love yourselves (rationally) and why it is that you would be beloved of others: And you will see that the same reasons will be of equal force to call for Love to others from you.

Mot. 8. What abundance of duty is summarily performed in Love? And what abundance of sin is avoided and prevented by it? If it be the fulfilling of the Law, it avoideth all the violations of the Law (proportionably.) So far as you have Love, you will neither dishonor superiors, nor oppress interiors, nor injure equals: You will neither covet that which is your neighbors, nor envy nor malice them, nor defame, nor backbite, nor censure them unjustly; nor will you rob them, or defraud them, nor withhold any duty or kindness to them.

Mot. 9. Consider how much Love pleaseth God? and why it is made so great a part of all your duty? and why the Gospel doth so highly commend it, and so strictly command it, and so terribly condemn the want of it? And also how suitable a duty it is for you, who are obliged by so much love of God? These things well studied will not be without effect?

Mot. 10. Consider also that it is your own interest, as well as your great duty. 1. It is the soundness and honesty of your hearts. 2. It is pleasing to that God on whom only you depend. 3. It is a condition of your receiving the saving benefits of his love. 4. It is an amiable virtue, and maketh you lovely to all sober men: All men love a loving nature, and hate those that hate and hurt their neighbors. Love commandeth love, and hurtfulness is hatefulness. 5. It is a sweet delightful duty: All Love is • ssentiated with some complacence, and delight. 6 It tendeth to the ease and quietness of your lives: What contentions and troubles will love avoid? What peace and pleasure doth it cause in families, neighbourhoods and all societies? And what brawling and vexations come where it is wanting? It will make all your neighbors and relations to be a comfort and delight to you; which would be a burden and trouble, if Love were absent. 7. It maketh all other men's felicity and comforts to be yours. If you love them as yourselves, their Riches, their health, their Honors, their Lordships, their Kingdoms, yea more, their knowledge, and learning, and grace, and happiness, are partly to you as your own. As the comforts of Wife and Children, and your dearest friends are: And as our Love to Christ, and the blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven, doth make their joys to be partly ours. How excellent, and easy, and honest a way is this, of making all the world your own, and receiving that benefit and pleasure from all things both in Heaven and Earth, which no distance, no malice of enemies can deny you? If those whom you truly Love have it, you have it. Why then do you complain that you have no more health, or wealth, or honor, or that others are preferred before you? Love your neighbors as yourselves, and then you will be comforted in his health, his wealth, and his preferment, and say, Those have it whom I love as myself, and therefore it is to me as mine own. When you see your neighbors Houses, Pastures, Corn and Cattle, Love will make it as good and pleasant to you as if it were your own. Why else do you rejoice in the portions and estates of your children as if it were your own? The covetous man saith, O how glad should I be if this House, this Land, this Corn were mine: But love will make you say, It is all to me as mine own. What a sure and cheap way is this of making all the world your own? O what a mercy doth God bestow on his servants souls, in the day that he sanctifieth them with unfeigned love? How much doth he give us in that one grace? And O what a world of blessing and comforts, do the ungodly, the malicious, the selfish, and the censorious cast away, when they cast away or quench the love of their neighbors? And what abundance of calamity do they bring upon themselves? In this one summary instance we may see, how much Religion and obedience to God doth tend to our own felicity and delight? And how easy a work it would be, if a wicked heart did not make it difficult? And how great a plague sin is unto the sinner? And how fore a punishment of itself? And by this you may see, what it is that all fallings-out, divisions and contentions tend to? And all temptations to the abatement of our love? And who it is that is the greater loser by it, when love to our neighbor is lost? And that backbiters and censurers who speak ill of others, come to us as the greatest enemies and thieves, to rob us of our chiefest jewel, and greatest comfort in this world? And accordingly should they be entertained.

Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Love to the Godly.

WHom we must take for Godly I answered before Chap. 24. Tit. 1. Quest. 5.

Quest. 1. How can we love the Godly, when no man can certainly know who is sincerely godly?

Answ. Our love is not the love of God which is guided by infallibility; but the love of man, which is guided by the dark and fallible discerning of a man: The fruits of piety and charity we infallibly see in their lives! But the saving truth of that grace which is or ought to be the root, we must judge of according to the probability which those signs discover: and love men accordingly.

Quest. 2. Must we love those as godly, who can give no sensible account of their conversion, for the time, or manner, or evidence of it?

Answ. We must take none for godly, who show no credible evidence of true conversion, that is, of true faith and Repentance: But there is many a one truly godly, who through natural defect of understanding or utterance, are not able in good sense to tell you what Conversion is, not to describe the manner in which it was wrought upon them, much less to define exactly the time or Sermon when it was first wrought; which few of the best Christians are able to do; especially of them who had pious education, and were wrought on in their childhood. But if the Covenant of Grace be wisely opened to them according to their capacity, and they deliberately, and soberly, and voluntarily profess their present assent and consent thereto, they do thereby give you the credible evidence of a true conversion, till you have sufficient contrary evidence to disprove it. For none but a converted man can truly repent, and believe in God the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, according to the Baptismal Covenant.

Quest. 3. But what if he be so ignorant that he cannot tell what faith, or repentance, or redemption, or sanctification, or the Covenant of Grace is?

Answ. If you have sufficient evidence that indeed he doth not at all understand, the essentials of the Sacramental Covenant, you may conclude that he is not truly godly: Because he cannot consent to what he knoweth not: Ignorantis non est consensus: And if you have no evidence of such knowledge, you have no evidence of his godliness, but must suspend your judgment. But yet many a one understandeth the essentials of the Covenant, who cannot tell another what they are. Therefore his mind (in case of great disability of utterance,) must be fished out by Questions, to which his Yea or No, will discover what he understandeth and consenteth to: You would not refuse to do so by one of another language, or a dumb man, who understood you, but could answer you but by broken words or signs: And verily ill education may make a great many of the phrases of Scripture, and religious language as strange to some men, though spoken in their native tongue, as if it were Greek or Latin to them, who yet may possibly understand the matter: A wise Teacher by well composed questions may (without fraud or formality) discern what a man understandeth, though he say but Yea or No; when an indiscreet unskillful man, will make his own unskillfulness and uncharitableness, the occasion of contemptuous trampling upon some that are as honest as himself. If a man's desires and endeavors are to that which is good, and he be willing to be taught and use the means, it must be very gross ignorance indeed, and well-proved, that must disprove his profession of faith. If he competently understand what it is to believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, he understandeth all that is absolutely necessary to salvation. And his Yea or No may sometime signify his understanding it.

Quest. 4. Must I take the visible members of the Church, because such, for truly godly?

Answ. Yes; except when you have particular sufficient proof of their hypocrisy. Certainly no man doth sincerely enter into the Baptismal Covenant, but he that is sincerely a penitent believer (if at age.) For that Covenant giveth actual pardon and adoption to those that sincerely enter into it: the very consenting to it (which is Repentance and saith) being the very condition of the present reception of these benefits. And therefore it is that the ancient Writers still affirmed that all the Baptized were regenerated, justified and adopted: Whether an adult person be truly fit for Baptism or not, the Pastor that baptizeth is to judge: And he must see the credible signs of true faith and repentance before he baptize him: which are no other than his understanding, voluntary, sober profession of consent to the Baptismal Covenant: But when he is baptized, and professeth to stand to that Covenant once made, he is to be judged a godly person by all the Church-members, who have not sufficient proof of the contrary: Because if he be sincere in what he did and still professeth, he is certainly godly: And whether he be sincere or not, he himself is the best and regular Judge or discerner, so far as to put in his claim to Baptism, which the Pastor is obliged not to deny him, without disproving him: And the Pastor is Judge as to his actual admittance: And therefore the people have nothing necessarily to do, but know whether he be baptized and stand to his baptism: For which they are to take him as sincere: Unless by his notorious discovery of the contrary they can disprove him. These are not only the true terms of Church-communion, but of Love to the godly: And though this goeth hardly down with some good men, who observe how few of the baptized seem to be seriously religious, and therefore they think that a Visible Church member as such, is not at all to be accounted sincere, that is, to be believed in his profession, and that we owe him not the special love which is due to the godly, but only a common love due only to professors without respect to their sincerity: Yet this opinion will not hold true: Nor is a profession required without respect to the truth or falsehood of it: the credibility of it being the very reason that it is requisite. Nor is it any other faith or consent to the Covenant below that which is sincere and saving, which must be professed by all that will be taken for Church-members. And though those that are of the contrary opinion are afraid le • t this will occasion too much strictness in the Pastors in judging whose Profession is credible, and consequently will countenance separation in the people, yet God hath provided a sufficient remedy against that fear, by making every man the opener of his own heart, and tying us by the Law of Nature and of Scripture, to take every man's Profession for credible, which is sober, understanding and voluntary, unless they can disprove it, or prove him a liar, and perfidious, and incredible. And whereas it is a latitude of Charity which bringeth them to the contrary opinion, for fear lest the incredible professors of Christianity, should be all excluded from the Visible Church; yet indeed it is but the Image of Charity, to bring Catechumens into the Church, (as to set the Boys of the lowest Form among them that are in their Greek,) and to deny all special Christian Love to all Visible members of the Church as such; and to think that we are not bound to take any of them (as such) to be sincere or in the favor of God, or justified, for fear of excluding those that are not. But of this I have written largely in a Treatise on this subject.

Quest. 5. Must we take all Visible-Church-members alike to be godly, and love them equally?

Answ. No: There are as many various degrees of credit due to their profession, as there are various degrees of credibility in it: Some manifest their sincerity by such full and excellent evidences in a holy life, that we are next to certain that they are sincere: And some make a profession so ignorantly, so coldly, and blot it by so many false Opinions and Vices, that our fear of them may be greater than our hope: Of whom we can only say, that we are not altogether hopeless of their sincerity, and therefore must use them as godly men, because we cannot prove the contrary: but yet admonish them of their danger, as having much cause to fear the worst: And there may be many notorious wicked men in some Churches through the Pastors fault, for want of Discipline. And these for order sake we must assemble with, but not dissemble with them and our own consciences, so as to take them for godly men, when the contrary is notorious; nor yet to admit them to our familiarity. The Pastor hath the keys of the Church, but we have the keys of our own houses and hearts.

Quest. 6. Must we love all equally that seem truly godly; the strong and the weak?

Answ. No: he that loveth men for their holiness, will love them according to the degrees of their holiness, as far as he can discern it.

Quest. 7. Must we love him more who hath much grace (or holiness) and is little useful for want of gifts, or him that hath less grace and eminent useful gifts?

Answ. They must both be loved according to the diversity of their goodness. He that hath most grace is best, and therefore most to be loved in himself: But as a Means to the conversion of souls and the honor of God in the good of others, the man that hath the most eminent gifts, must be most loved. The first is more loved in and for his own goodness: The second is more lovely propter aliud as a means to that which is more loved than either of them.

Quest. 8. Must we love him as a godly man, who liveth in any great or mortal sin?

Answ. Every man must be loved as he is: If by a mortal sin, be meant a sin inconsistent with the Love of God and a state of grace, then the question is no question; it being a contradiction which is in question. But if by a great and mortal sin, be meant only this or that act of sinning, and the question be, Whether that act be mortal, that is, inconsistent with true grace or not? Then the particular act, with the circumstances must be considered, before that question can be answered. Murder is one of the most heinous sins: And one man may be guilty of it, out of deliberate habituate malice: and another through a sudden passion; and another through mere inadvertency, carelessness, and negligence: Stealing may be done by one man presumptuously, and by another merely to save the life of himself or his children: These will not equally prove a man in a state of death, and without true grace. And which is a mortal sin inconsistent with the life of Grace, and which not, is before spoken to, and belongeth not to this place. Only I shall say, that the sin (be it great or small as to the outward act or matter) which certainly excludeth the habitual devotedness of the soul to God, by Resignation, Obedience and Love, is mortal or a mark of spiritual death: And so is all sin, which consisteth not with habitual repentance, and a predominant hatred of sin as sin, and of a disobedient unholy heart and life: And therefore all sin, which is not repented of, as soon as it is known, and the sinner hath time and opportunity of deliberation: Because in such a case, the habit of Repentance will produce the act.

Quest. 9. Must an excommunicate person be loved as Godly, or not?

Answ. You must distinguish, 1. Of Excommunication, 2. Of the person that is to judge: 1. There is an Excommunication which censureth not the state of the sinner, but only suspendeth him from Church-communion as at the present actually unfit for it: And there is an Excommunication which habituately or statedly excludeth the sinner from his Church-relation, as an habituate, impenitent, obstinate person. 2. Some persons have no opportunity to try the cause themselves, being strangers, or not called to it; but must take it upon the Pastors judgment: And some have opportunity to know the person and the cause, whether he be justly excommunicated or not. Now, 1. Those that know by notoriety or proof that the person is justly excommunicated with the second sort of Excommunication, must not, nor cannot Love him as a Godly man. 2. Those that know by notoriety or proof that the person is unjustly Excommunicated, are not therefore to deny him the estimation and love which is due to a Godly man; though for order sake they may sometimes be obliged to avoid external Churchcommunion with him. 3. Those that know nothing of the cause themselves, must judge as the Pastor judgeth who is the legal judge: yet so, as to take it to be but a human, fallible, and no final judgment.

Quest. 10. Can an unsanctified hypocrite unfeignedly love a Godly man?

Answ. There is no doubt but he may materially love him, on some other consideration: As because he is a kinsman, friend, benefactor, or is witty, learned, fair, &c.

Quest. 11. But can he love a Godly man because he is Godly.

Answ. He may love a Godly man (at least) as he may love God: An unholy person cannot Love God in all his perfections respectively to himself: as a God who is most holy and just in his Government, forbidding all sin, and condemning the ungodly: For the Love of his sins is inconsistent with this Love: But he may love him as he is most great, and wise and good in the general, and as he is the maker and benefactor of the world and of the sinner: yea and in general as his Governor: And so he may verily think that he loveth God as God, because he loveth him for his Essentialities: But indeed he doth not (speaking strictly), because he leaveth out someone or more of these essentialities: even as he that loveth man as rational, but not as a Voluntary free agent, loveth not man as man: And as a Heretic is no Christian, because he denieth someone Essential part of Christianity: Even so as to the Love of Godly men, an ungodly man may believe that they are better than others, and therefore love them: But not as Godliness is the consent to that Holiness and Justice of God, which would restrain him from his beloved sins, and condemn him for them. So far as they are simply Godly to themselves, without respect to him and his sins, he may love them.

Quest. 12. May he love a Godly man as he would make him godly, and convert him?

Answ. He may love him as a better man than others, and in general he may wish himself as good, and may love him because he wisheth him well: But as he cannot be (or rather is not) willing himself to leave his sins and live in holiness, so another is not grateful to him, who urgently persuadeth him to this.

Quest. 13. Doth any ungodly person love the Godly comparatively more than others?

Answ. So far as he doth love them as Godly, so far he may love them more than those that are not such: Many a bad Father loveth a religious Child better than the rest: Because they think that wisdom and Godliness are good; and they are glad to see their Children do well, as long as they do not grate upon them with troublesome censures: For another man's Godliness costeth a bad man little or nothing: He may behold it without the parting with his sins.

Quest. 14. Doth every sincere Christian love all the Godly with a special love? even those that oppose their opinions, or that they think do greatly wrong them?

Answ. 1. Every true Christian loveth a Godly man as such, and therefore loveth all such, if he take them to be such. 2. No Godly man doth habitually and impenitently live in such malice or enmity, as will not suffer him to see the Godliness of a dissenter or adversary, when it hath sufficient evidence. 3. But ill education and company, and want of opportunity, may keep a true Christian from discerning the Godliness of another, and so from loving him as a Godly man. 4. And error and faction and passion may in a temptation so far prevail as at the present to pervert his judgment, and make him misjudge a Godly man to be ungodly: though when he hath opportunity to deliberate and come to himself, he will repent of it.

Quest. 15. What is that Love to the Godly which proveth a man's sincerity, and which no hypocrite or unregenerate person doth attain to?

Answ. It hath in it these essential parts: 1. He loveth God best and his servants for his sake. 2. He loveth Godliness, and the person as Godly, and therefore would fain be such himself: or loveth it for himself as well as in others. 3. He loveth not one only, but all the Essential parts of Godliness (our absolute resignation to God our Owner, our absolute obedience to God our Ruler, and our highest Gratitude and Love to God our Benefactor and our End.) 4. He loveth Godliness and Godly men, above his carnal worldly interest, his honor, wealth or pleasure; and therefore will part with these in works of Charity, when he can understand that God requireth it. These four set together make up that Love which will prove your sincerity, and which no hypocrite doth perform. Hypocrites either love the Godly only as their benefactors with a self-love; or they love them as Godly to themselves, but would not be like them, and love not Godliness itself to make them Godly: or they love them for some parts of Godliness, and not for all: or they love them but in subjection to their worldly love; with such a dry and barren Love as James rejecteth, I am. 2. as will not be at any great cost upon them, to feed or clothe or visit or relieve them.

Tit. 2. Directions for Loving the Children of God.

Direct. 1. ONce get the Love of God, and you cannot choose but love his Children. Therefore first set your hearts to that, and study the Directions for it, Tom. 1. God must be first loved as God, before the Godly can be loved as such; Though perhaps this effect may sometime be more manifest than the cause: Fortifie the cause and the effect will follow.

Direct. 2. Get Christ to dwell in your hearts by faith, Eph. 3. 17. and then you will love his members for his sake. The study of the love of God in Christ, and the belief of all the benefits of his love and sufferings, will be the bellows continually to kindle your love to your Redeemer and to all those that are like him and beloved by him.

Direct. 3. Cherish the motions of God's spirit in yourselves: For he is a spirit of Love: And it is the same spirit which is in all the Saints: Therefore the more you have of the spirit, the more Unity and the more Love you will have to all that are truly spiritual. The decays of your own holiness, containeth a decay of your love to the holy.

Direct. 4. Observe their Graces more than their infirmities. You cannot love them unless you take notice of that goodness which is their loveliness. Overlooking and extenuating the good that is in others, doth show your want of love to goodness; and then no wonder if you want love to those that are good.

Direct. 5. Be not tempters and provokers of them to any sin: For that is but to stir up the worser part which is in them, and to make it more apparent; and so to hide their amiableness, and hinder your own love. They that will be abusing them, and stirring up their passions, or oppressing wise men to try if they can make them mad, or increasing their burdens and persecutions to see whether there be any impatiency left in them, are but like the Horseman who was still spurring his Horse, and then sold him because he was skittish and unquiet: or like the Gentleman that must needs come as a Suitor to a beautiful Lady, just when she had taken a Vomit and Purge, and then disdained her as being unsavory and loathsome.

Direct. 6. Stir up their Graces, and converse much with them in the exercises of grace. If Aristotle or Socrates, Demosthenes or Cicero, stood silent by you among other persons, you will perceive no difference between them and a fool or a vulgar wit: But when once they open their lips and pour out the streams of wisdom and eloquence, you will quickly perceive how far they excel the common world, and will admire, love and honor them. So when you converse with Godly men, about matters of trading or common employments only, you will see no more but their blamelesness and justice: But if you will join with them in holy Conference or Prayer, or observe them in good works, you will see that the spirit of Christ is in them. When you hear the longings of their souls after God, and their Heavenly desires and hopes and joys, and their love to piety, charity and justice, express themselves in their holy discourse and prayers, and see the fruits of them in their lives, you will see that they are more than common men.

Direct. 7. Foresee the perfection of their Graces in their beginnings. No man will Love a seed or stock of those plants or trees which bear the sweetest and most beautiful flowers and fruits, unless in the seed he foresee the fruit or flower which it tendeth to: No man loveth the egg aright, who doth not foreknow what a • i • d it will bring forth. Aristotle or Cicero were no more amiable in their infancy than others, except to him that could foretell what men they were like to prove. Think oft of Heaven, and what a thing a Saint will be in Glory, when he shall shine as the Stars, and be equal to the Angels; and then you will quickly see cause to love them.

Direct. 8. Frequently think of the Everlasting union and sweet agreement which you must have with them in Heaven forever: How perfectly you will love each other in the Love of God? How joyfully you will consent in the Love and Praises of your Creator and Redeemer? The more believingly you foresee that state, and the more you contemplate thereon, and the more your Conversation is in Heaven; the more will you love your fellow Soldiers and Travelers, with whom you must live in blessedness forever.

Tit. 3. Motives or Meditative helps to love the Godly.

Mot. 1. COnsider what Relation all the Regenerate have to God. They are not only his Creatures, but his Adopted Children: And are they not honorable and amiable who are so near to God?

Mot. 2. Think of their near Relation to Jesus Christ: They are his Members, and his Brethren, and the purchase of his sufferings, and coheirs of everlasting life? Rom. 8. 16, 17. Ephes. 5. 26, 27.

Mot. 3. Think of the excellency of that spirit and holy Nature which is in them. Regeneration hath made them partakers of the Divine nature, and hath endued them with the spirit of Christ, and hath by the incorruptible seed made them new Creatures, of a Holy and Heavenly mind and life; and hath renewed them after the Image of God? And what besides God himself can be so amiable as his Image.

Mot. 4. Think of the precious price which was paid for their Redemption: If you will estimate things by their price (if the purchaser be wise) how highly must you value them?

Mot. 5. Remember how dearly they are beloved of God, their Creator and Redeemer: Read and observe God's tender language towards them; and his tender dealings with them. He calleth them his Children, his beloved, yea dearly-beloved, his jewels, the apple of his eye, Deut. 33. 12. Psal. 60. 5. & 127. 2. Col. 3. 12. Ier. 12. 7. Mal. 3. 17. Zech. 2. 8. Deut. 32. 10. Christ calleth the least of them his Brethren, Matth. 25. Judge of his love to them by his incarnation, life and sufferings! Judge of it by that one heart melting message after his resurrection, Joh. 20. 17. Go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. And should we not love them dearly who are so dearly beloved of God?

Mot. 6. They are our Brethren, begotten by the same father and Spirit, of the same holy seed, the word of God; and have the same nature and disposition: And this Unity of nature and nearness of relation, is such a suitableness as must needs cause love.

Mot. 7. They are our companions in labor and tribulation: in our duty and sufferings: They are our fellow Soldiers, and Travelers: with whom only we can have sweet and holy converse: and a Heavenly conversation; when the carnal, favor not the things of God.

Mot. 8. Consider how serviceable their graces render them, for the pleasing of God and the good of men: They are the work of God, created to good works, Ephes. 2. 10. They are fitted by grace to Love and praise their Maker and Redeemer: and to obey his Laws, and to honor him in their works, as shining lights in a dark generation: They are the blessings of the place where God hath planted them: They pray for sinners, and exhort them, and give them good examples, and call them from their sins, and lovingly draw them on to conversion and salvation. For their sakes God useth others the better where they live. Ten righteous persons might have saved Sodom. They are lovely therefore for the service which they do.

Mot. 9. All their graces will be shortly perfected, and all their infirmities done away. They are already pardoned and justified by Christ; and every remaining spot and wrinkle will be shortly taken away, Ephes. 5, 26, 27. and they shall be presented perfect unto God. And they that shall be so perfect then, are amiable now.

Mot. 10. They shall see the Glory of God, and live forever in his presence: They shall be employed in his perfect Love and praise, and we shall be their companions therein: And those that must sing Halleluja's to God in perfect amity and concord, in such an harmonious blessed chore, should live in great endearedness in the way.

Tit. 4. The Hinderances and Enemies of Christian love.

Enemy 1. THE first Enemy of Christian Love, is the inward unregeneracy and carnality of the mind: For the carnal mind is enmity to God, and neither is nor can be subject to his law, Rom. 8. 6, 7. And therefore it is at enmity with Holiness and with those that are seriously holy. The excellency of a Christian is seen only by faith, believing what God speaketh of them, and by spiritual discerning of their spiritual worth: But the natural man discerneth not the things of the spirit, but they are as foolishness to him, because they must be spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2. 14. There must be a suitableness of nature before there can be true love: And he that will love them as holy, must first love holiness himself.

Enemy 2. Another Enemy to Christian Love is, selfishness, or inordinate self-love: For this will make men love no one heartily, but as they serve or love or honor them, and according to the measures of their selfish interest: If a Godly man will not flatter such persons, and serve their proud or covetous humors, they cannot love him. A selfish person maketh so great a matter of every infirmity which crosseth his interest, or every mistake which crosseth his opinion, or every little injury that his done him, that he crieth out presently, O what wicked and unconscionable people are these! What hypocrites are they? Is this their Religion? Is this justice or charity? All virtues and vices are estimated by them, according to their own ends and interests chiefly: They can think better of a common Whoremonger, or Swearer, or Atheist, or Infidel that loveth, and honoreth, and serveth them, than of the most holy and upright servant of God, who thinketh meanly or hardly of them, and standeth in their way, and seemeth to be against their interest: It is no commendations to him in this man's account, that he loveth God and all that are godly, if he seem to injure or cross a selfish man: A carnal self-lover can love none but himself and for himself; and maketh all faults which are against himself to be the characters of an odious person, rather than those which are committed against God.

Enemy 3. Christian love is often diminished and marred by Degenerating into a Carnal sort of Love, through the prevalency of some Carnal Vice. Thus they that loved a man for Godliness, turn it into a selfish love, for some honor, or favor, or benefits to themselves: And young persons of different Sexes, begin to love each other for piety, and by undiscreet, and unwary, and sinful familiars, are drawn before they are aware, to carnal, fond and sinful love. And these persons think that their holy love is stronger than before; when as it is stifled, consuming and languishing, as natural heat by a burning Feavor; and is overcome and turned into another thing.

Enemy 4. Passion and Impatiency is a great enemy to Christian Love. It is stirring up displeasing words and carriage, and then cannot bear them: It meeteth everywhere with matter of displeasure and offense: and is still casting water on this sacred fire; and feigning or finding faults in all.

Enemy 5. Self-ignorance and partiality is a great enemy to love: when it maketh men overlook their own corruptions, and extenuate all those faults in themselves, which in others they take for heinous crimes: And so they want that compassion to others, which would bear with infirmities, because they know not how bad they are themselves, and what need they have of the forbearance of others.

Enemy 6. Censoriousness is an enemy to brotherly love (as is aforesaid:) A censorious person will tell you how dearly he loveth all the godly: But he can allow so few the acknowledgement of their godliness, that few are beholden to him for his love. His sinful humor blindeth his mind, that he cannot see another's godliness: He will love them for their sincerity when he can see it: but that will not be till he hath better eyes. Timon was a great lover of wisdom: but a hater of all men, because he took no man to be wise.

Enemy 7. Faction and Parties, or siding in Religion, is one of the greatest enemies of Christian love. For this causeth Censoriousness, and maketh men so overvalue the Opinions which they have chosen, and the interest of their party, that they hardly see goodness in any that are not of their mind, and quickly find faults (or devise them) in those that are against them.

Enemy 8. Conversing with malicious wicked or censorious persons, is a great hindrance of the love of godly men: For he that heareth them daily slandered, and represented as brainsick, seditious, selfconceited, humorous, hypocritical people, will easily take them as odious, but hardly as amiable, unless he come nearer them, and know them better than by a liars words.

Enemy 9. Too high expectations is a great enemy to love. When men either look that Saints on earth, should be like Saints in Heaven, who have no infirmity, or look for greater parts of nature, or art, ingenuity or excellency of speech than is in other persons, or when selfishness, and covetousness, or pride doth make men look for great respect, and observance, and esteem, or gifts, or commodity from others: When sin and error raiseth these unreasonable expectations, and the imperfect graces of Christians do not answer them, such persons think contemptibly of good men, and call them hypocrites and as bad as others, because they are not such as they expected.

Enemy 10. The placing of men's goodness in lesser matters in which it doth not consist, is also a common enemy of Love. When a man is himself so carnal as not to know what spiritual excellency is, but prefer some common gifts before it, such a one can never be satisfied in the ordinary sort of upright men: Thus some make a great matter of Complement and Courtship, and handsome deportment, when some holy persons are so taken up with the great matters of God and their salvation; and so retired from the company of Complementers, that they have neither time, nor mind, nor skill, nor will, for such impertinencies: Some place so much in some particular opinions, or Ceremonies, or Forms of Church-Government and Worship, that they can think well of no man that is against them: Whereas good men on earth are so imperfect, that they are and will be of several opinions about such things: And so these persons oblige themselves by their own. Opinionativeness, to be always against one part of the sincerest servants of Christ. One man can think well of none that is not for his Church-party, or way of Government and Worship; and another can think well of none that is not for his way: One can think well of none that prayeth not by his Book, and doth not turn, and bend, and look just in the same manner, garb and po • iure with himself, and that useth not all the Ceremonies which he affecteth; or at least, if his weakness make him guilty of any unhansome tone or gesture, or of any incompt and unapt expressions, or needless repetitions, or unpleasing style: (which all we wish that all good men were free from): Another can think well of no man, that is for pomp and force in Church-Government, or for Ceremonies, Forms and Books in prayer, and for prescribed words in worshipping God. And thus placing Religion where they should not, causeth too many to take up with a mistaken Religion for themselves, and to dislike all that are not of their mind, and certainly destroyeth Christian love in one part of Christians towards the other.

Enemy 11. Pride also is a pestilent extinguisher of love. For a proud man is so much overwise in his own eyes, that he can without remorse stigmatize all that dissent from him with the names of ignorant or erroneous, Schismatical, Heretical, or what other name the humor or advantage of the times shall offer him: And he is so Good in his own eyes, that he measureth men's goodness and godliness by their agreement with him, or compliance with his will. And he is so Great in his own eyes, that he thinketh himself and his complices only fit to make Laws for others, and to rule them in their opinions, and in the Worship of God; and no man fit to say anything publicly to God, but what he putteth into their mouths: He can think well of none that will not obey him: Like the Pope of Rome, that saith no man on earth hath Church-communion with him, that is not subject to him. A humble Christian thinketh that himself and the Gospel have great and unusual prosperity in the world, when they have but Liberty; But proud men think that Religion is ruinated, and they are persecuted, when they have not their will upon their brethren, and when their brethren will be but brethren, and deny them obedience. Subjects they can think well of and command, but Brethren they cannot love nor tolerate.

Enemy 12. Lastly, The Counterfeits of Christian love deceive abundance, and keep them from that which is Love indeed. They might be brought to it, if they had not thought that they had it already, when they have it not.

Tit. 5. The Counterfeits of Christian Love.

Counterfeit 1. IT is but Counterfeit Love to Christians, when they are loved only for being of the common Religion of the Country, and the same that you say you are of yourselves: As one Mahometan loveth another.

Count. 2. Or to love one only Sect or party of Christians, which you espouse as the only party or Church; and not to love a Christian as a Christian, and so to love all true Christians whom you can discern to be such.

Count. 3. To love only those Christians who are your kindred or relations, or those that have been some way benefactors to you.

Count. 4. To love Christians only for their familiarity, or kind and loving conversation, and civil obliging deportment among men.

Count. 5. To love them only because they are Learned, or have better wits and abilities of speech, in preaching, prayer or conference than others.

Count. 6. To love them only upon the praise which common commendations may sometimes give them, and for being magnified by fame, and well spoken of by all men. Thus many wicked men do love the Saints departed, when they hate those that are alive among them.

Count. 7. To love them only for being godly in themselves at a distance, so they will not trouble them with their godliness: while they love not those that reprove them, and would draw them to be as godly.

Count. 8. To love them only for suffering with them in the same cause. Thus a profane person taken by the Turks may love his fellow Captives who refuse to renounce Christ. And thus a sufferer for an ill cause, or in an erroneous Sect, may love those that suffer with him above others.

Count. 9. To love them only for holding strict and right opinions, while they will not endure to live accordingly: Thus many love the light, that cannot bear the heat and motion: Many love an Orthodox person, of a sound judgment, that is against looseness and profaneness in his opinion, and do not like the folly of the licentious; who yet like licentious practice best.

Count. 10. To love them for some parts of Godliness only; while some other essential part will not be endured, (of which before).

Count. 11. To love them in a kind fit only, as Soul with tears professed to do his Son David; but to have no habitual constant Love.

Direct. 12. Lastly, To love godly men a little, and the world and fleshly interest more: To love them only so as will cost them nothing: To wish them fed, but not to feed them, and to wish them clothed, but not to clothe them, and to wish them out of Prison, but not to dare to visit them for fear of suffering themselves. He that hath this worlds goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutup the bowels of his compassion from him, how dwelleth the Love of God in him, 1 John. 3. 17. Surely if the love of his brother were in him, the love of God had been in him. But he hath no true love to his brother, that will only love him on terms that cost him little, and cannot give and suffer for his love. All these are deceiving Counterfeits of Love to the children of God.

Tit. 6. Cases and Directions for intimate special Friends.

Quest. 1. IS it lawful to have an earnest desire to be Loved by others? Especially by someone person above all other?

Answ. There is a desire of others Love which is lawful, and there is a desire which is unlawful.

I. It is lawful, 1. When we desire it as it is their duty, which God himself obligeth them to perform, and so is part of their integrity, and is their own good, and pleaseth God; So Parents must desire their children to love them, and one another, because it is their duty, and else they are unnatural and bad: And Husband and Wife may desire that each other discharge that duty of Love which God requireth, and so may all others. 2. It is lawful also to desire for our own sakes to be loved by others; so be it, it be, 1. With a calm and sober desire, which is not eager, peremptory or importunate, nor overvalueth the Love of man: 2. According to the proportion of our own worth; not desiring to be thought Greater, Wiser or Better than indeed we are, nor to be loved erroneously by an overvaluing Love. 3. When we desire it for the benefits to which it tendeth, more than to be valued and loved ourselves: As, 1. That we may receive that edification and good from a friend, which Love disposeth them to communicate: 2. That we may do that good to our friends, which Love disposeth them to receive. 3. That we may honor and please God, who delighteth in the true Love and Concord of his Children.

II. But the unlawful desire of others Love to us, is much more common, and is a sin of a deeper malignity than is commonly observed. This desire of love is sinful, when it is contrary to that before described: As, 1. When we desire it over eagerly: 2. When we desire it selfishly and proudly, to be set up in the good opinion of others; and not to make a benefit of it to ourselves or them: bt our own Honor is more desired in it, than the honor of God. 3. When we desire to be thought Greater, Wiser or Better than we are, and to be loved with such an overvaluing Love; and have no desire that the bounds of Truth and Usefulness should restrain and limit that love to us which we affect. 4. When it is an erroneous fanciful, carnal, or lustful esteem of someone person, which maketh us desire his love more than others. As because he is higher, richer, fairer, &c.

This eager desire to be over-loved by others, hath in it all these aggravations. 1. It is the very sin of Pride, which God hath declared so great a detestation of. For Pride is an over-valuing ourselves, for Greatness, Wisdom or Goodness, and a desire to be so over-valued of others. And he that would be over-loved, would be over-valued.

2. It is self-idolizing: When we would be loved as better than we are, we rob God of that Love which men should render to him, who can never be over-loved, and we would fain seem a kind of petty Deities to the world, and draw men's eyes and hearts unto ourselves. When we should be jealous of God's interest and honor, lest we or any creature should have his due, this proud disposition maketh people set up themselves in the estimation of others, and they scarce care how Good, or Wise they are esteemed; nor how much they are lifted up in the hearts of others.

3. It is an injurious ensnaring the minds of others, and tempting them to erroneous opinions of us, and affections to us; which will be their sin, and may bring them into many inconveniences. It is an ordinary thing to do greater hurt to a friend whom we value, by ensnaring him in an inordinate Love, than ever we did or can do to an enemy by hating him.

Quest. 2. Is it lawful, meet or desirable to entertain that extraordinary affection to any one, which is called special friendship, or to have an endeared intimate friend, whom we love far above all others?

Answ. Intimate special friendship is a thing that hath been so much pleaded for by all sorts of men, and so much of the felicity of man's life hath been placed in it, that it beseemeth not me to speak against it. But yet I think it meet to tell you with what Cautions and limits it must be received, and how far it is good, and how far sinful: (For there are perils here to be avoided, which neither Cicero, nor his Scipio and Laelius were acquainted with).

I. 1. It is lawful to choose someone well qualified person, who is fittest for that use, and to make him the chief companion of our lives; our chiefest counselor and comforter, and to confine our intimacy and converse to him in a special manner above all others. 2. And it is lawful to love him not only according to his personal worth, but according to his special suitableness to us, and to desire his felicity accordingly, and to exercise our love to him more frequently and sensibly (because of his nearness and presence) than towards some better men that are further off.

The Reasons of such an intimate friendship are these, 1. No man is sufficient for himself, and therefore Nature teacheth him to desire an helper. And there is so wonderful a diversity of temperaments and conditions, and so great a disparity and incongruity among good and wise men, towards each other that one that is more suitable and congruous to us than all the rest, may on that account be much preferred.

2. It is not many that can be so near us as to be ordinary helpers to us: And a wiser man at a distance or out of reach, may be less useful to us, than one of inferior worth at hand.

3. The very exercise of friendly love and kindness to another is pleasant: And so it is to have one to whom we may confidently reveal our secrets, to bear part of our burden, and to confirm us in our right apprehensions, and to cure us of wrong ones.

4. And it is no small benefit of a present bosom friend, to be instead of all the world to us, that is, of common unprofitable company: For man is a sociable creature, and abhorreth utter solitude. And among the common sort, we shall meet with so much evil, and so little that is truly wise or good, as will tempt a man to think that he is best when he is least conversant with mankind. But a selected friend is to us for usefulness instead of many, without these common incumbrances and snares.

5. And it is a great part of the commodity of a faithful friend, to be assisted in the true knowledge of ourselves: To have one that will watch over us, and faithfully tell us of the sin, and danger, and duty, which we cannot easily see without help, and which other men will not faithfully acquaint us with.

II. But yet it is rare to choose and use this friendship rightly: And there are many evils here to be carefully avoided. The instances shall be mentioned anon in the directions, and therefore now passed by.

Quest. 3. Is it meet to have more such bosom friends than one?

Answ. Usually One only is meetest: 1. Because Love diffused is oft weak, and contracted is more strong. 2. Because secrets are seldom safe in the hands of many. 3. Because suitable persons are rare; 4. And though two or three may be suitable to you, yet perhaps they may be unsuitable among themselves. And the calamity of their own disparities will redound to you; And their fallings out may turn to the bewraying of your secrets, or to some other greater wrong.

2. But yet sometimes two or three such friends may be better than one alone. 1. In case they be all near and of an approved suitableness and fidelity. 2. In case they be all suitable and endeared to one another. 3. If a man live per vices in several places, and his friends cannot remove with him, he may have one friend in one place, and another in another, and so many will be but as one that is constant: 4. And in case that many may add to our help, our counsel and comfort, more than to our danger, hurt or trouble. In all these cases many are better than one.

Quest. 4. Is it fit for him to take another bosom friend who hath a pious Wife? and is any other so fit to be a friend, as he and she that are as one flesh?

Answ. When a Wife hath the understanding, and virtue and fidelity fit for this sort of friendship then no one else is so • it, because of nearness and united interests. The same I say of a Husband to a Wife. But because that it seldom falls out that there is such a fitness for this office, especially in the Wife, in that case it is lawful and meet to choose a friend that is fit indeed, and to commit those secrets to him which we commit not to a Wife: For secrets are not to be committed to the untrusty, nor wise counsel to be expected from the unwise, how near soever. And the great writers about this special Friendship, do think that no woman is fit for it, but men only: But that conclusion is too injurious to that Sex.

Quest. 5. Is it agreeable to the nature of true friendship to Love our friend not only for himself, but for our own commodity? and whether must he or I be the chief end of my love and friendship?

Answ. 1. Indeed in our Love to God, he that is the object is also our chief and ultimate end, and we must Love him more for Himself than for ourselves. And yet here it is lawful subordinately to intend ourselves.

2. And our love to the Common-wealth should be greater than our Love to ourselves, and therefore we may not Love it chiefly for ourselves.

3. And if our bosom friend be notoriously Better than we are, and more serviceable to God and to the common good, we should Love him also above ourselves, and therefore not chiefly for ourselves.

4. But in case of an equality of goodness and usefulness, we are not bound to Love our most intimate friend more than ourselves; and therefore may at least equally Love him for ourselves, as for himself. And if we are really and notoriously better and more useful, we may love him chiefly for ourselves, and ourselves above him. But still we must love God and the public Good, above both ourselves and him, and must Love both ourselves and him in order to God, who is the beginning and end of all.

Quest. 6. Is it contrary to the nature of true friendship to keep any secret from such a bosom friend, or to retain any suspicion of him, or to suppose that he may possibly prove unfaithful to us and forsake us?

Answ. Cicero and the old Doctors of Friendship say, that all this is inconsistent with true friendship: And it is true that it is contrary to perfect friendship. But it is as true, that perfect friendship cannot be, nor must not be, among imperfect men: And that the nature of mankind is so much depraved, that the best are unmeet for perfect friendship: And certainly few men, if any in the world, are fit for every secret of our hearts. Besides that we are so bad, that if all our secret thoughts were known to one another, it might do much to abate our friendship, and love to each other. And it is certain that man is so corrupt a creature, and good men so imperfectly cured of their corruption, that there is selfishness, uncertainty, and mutability in the best. And therefore it is not a duty to judge falsely of men, but contrarily to judge of them as they are. And therefore to suppose that it is possible the closest friend may reveal our secrets, one time or other, and that the steadfastest friend may possibly become our enemy. To think that possible, which is possible (and more,) is injurious to none.

Quest. 7. Is it lawful to change a bosom friend, and to prefer a new one whom we perceive to be more worthy before an old one.

Answ. An old friend caeteris paribus is to be preferred before a new one, and is not to be cast off without desert and necessity. But for all that, 1. If an old friend prove false, or notably unfit; 2. Or if we meet with another that is far more able, fit and worthy, no doubt but we may prefer the later; and may value, Love, and use men as they are for goodness, worth and usefulness.

Quest. 8. What Love is due to a Minister that hath been the means of our Conversion? And can such a one • e loved too much?

Answ. 1. There is a special Love due to such a one, as the hand by which God did reach out to us his invaluable mercies: And ingratitude, and sectarian proud contempt of such, as have been our fathers in Christ, is no small sin.

2. But yet another that never did us good, who is much wiser and better and more serviceable to the Church, must be better Loved, than he by whom we were converted. Because we are to love men more for the sake of God and his Image and service, than for ourselves.

3. And it is a very common thing, for passionate Women and young people, when they are newly converted, to think that they can never too much value and honor and Love those that converted them; and to think that all such Love is holy and from God; whereas the same Love may be of God as to the principle, motives and ends, in the main, and yet may have great mixtures of passionate weakness, and sinful excess, which may tend to their great affliction in the end. Some that have been converted by the writings of a Minister a hundred or a thousand miles off, must needs go see the Author; some must needs remove from their lawful dwellings and callings, to live under the Ministry of such a one; yea if it may be in the house with him: some have affections so violent, as proveth a torment to them when they cannot live with those whom they so affect: some by that affection are ready to follow those that they so value, into any error. And all this is a sinful Love by this mixture of passionate weakness, though pious in the main.

Quest. 9. Why should we restrain our Love to a bosom friend (contrary to Cicero's doctrine) and what sin or danger is in loving him too much?

Answ. All these following, 1. It is an error of judgment and of will, to suppose any one Better than he is, (yea perhaps than any creature on earth is,) and so to Love him.

2. It is an irrational act, and therefore not fit for a Rational creature, to Love any one farther than reason will allow us, and beyond the true causes of regular Love.

3. It is usually a fruit of sinful selfishness: For this excess of Love doth come from a selfish cause either some strong conceit that the person greatly Loveth us, or for some great kindness which he hath shown us, or for some need we have of him, and fitness appearing in him to be useful to us, &c. Otherwise it would be purely for Amiable worth, and then it would be proportioned to the nature and measure of that worth.

4. It very often taketh up men's minds, so as to hinder their Love to God, and their desires and delights in holy things: While Satan (perhaps upon Religious pretences) turneth our affections too violently to some person, it diverteth them from higher and better things: For the weak mind of man can hardly think earnestly of one thing, without being alienated in his thoughts from others; nor can hardly love two things or persons fervently at once, that stand not in pure subordination one to the other: And we seldom Love any fervently in a pure subordination to God; For then we should Love God still more fervently.

5. It oft maketh men ill members of the Church and Commonwealth. For it contracteth that Love to one over-valued person, which should be diffused abroad among many; and the common good which should be loved above any single person is by this means neglected (as God himself): which maketh Wives and Children and bosom friends, become those gulfs that swallow up the estates of most rich men; so that they do little good with them to the public state, which should be preferred.

6. Overmuch friendship engageth us in more duty than we are well able to perform, without neglecting our duty to God, the Commonwealth and our own souls. There is some special duty followeth all special acquaintance; but a bosom friend will expect a great deal. You must allow him much of your Time in conference, upon all occasions; and he looketh that you should be many ways friendly and useful to him, as he is or would be to you. When, alas frail man can do but little: our Time is short; our strength is small; our estates and faculties are narrow and low. And that Time which you must spend with your bosom friend; where friendship is not moderated and wisely managed, is perhaps taken from God and the public good, to which you first owed it. Especially if you are Magistrates, Ministers, Physicians, Schoolmasters, or such other as are of public usefulness. Indeed if you have a sober prudent friend, that will look but for your vacant hours, and rather help you in your public service, you are happy in such a friend. But that is not the excess of Love that I am reprehending.

7. This inordinate friendship prepareth for disappointments, yea and for excess of sorrows. Usually experience will tell you that your best friends are but uncertain and imperfect men, and will not answer your expectation: And perhaps some of them may so grossly fail you you, as to set light by you, or prove your Adversaries. I have seen the bonds of extraordinary dearness many ways dissolved: One hath been overcome by the flesh, and turned drunkard and sensual, and so proved unfit for intimate friendship (who yet sometime seemed of extraordinary uprightness and zeal.) Another hath taken up some singular conceits in Religion, and joined to some sect. where his bosom friend could not follow him. And so it hath seemed his duty to look with strangeness, contempt or pity on his ancient friend, as one that is dark, and low, if not supposed an adversary to the truth, because he espouseth not all his mis-conceits. Another is suddenly lifted up with some preferment, dignity and success, and so is taken with higher things and higher converse, and thinks it is very fair, to give an embrace to his ancient friend, for what he once was to him, instead of continuing such endearedness. Another hath changed his place and company, and so by degrees grown very indifferent to his ancient friend, when he is out of sight, and converse ceaseth. Another hath himself chosen his friend amiss, in his inexperienced youth, or in a penury of wise and good men, supposing him much better than he was: and afterward hath had experience of many persons of far greater wisdom, piety and fidelity, whom therefore reason commanded him to preser. All these are ordinary dissolvers of these bonds of intimate and special friendship.

And if your Love continue as hot as ever, its excess is like to be your excessive sorrow. For 1. You will be the more grieved at every suffering of your friend, as sickness, losses, crosses, &c. whereof so many attend mankind, as is like to make your burden great. 2. Upon every removal, his absence will be the more troublesome to you. 3. All incongruities and fallings out will be the more painful to you, especially his jealousies, discontents and passions, which you cannot command. 4. His death, if he die before you will be the more grievous, and your own the more unwellcome, because you must part with him. These and abundance of sore afflictions are the ordinary fruits of too strong affections: And it is no rare thing for the best of God's servants to profess, that their sufferings from their friends who have over-loved them, have been ten times greater than from all the enemies that ever they had in the world.

And to those that are wavering about this case, Whether only a common friendship with all men according to their various worth, or a bosom intimacy with someone man, be more desirable, I shall premise a free confession of my own case, whatever censures for it I incur. When I was first awakened to the regard of things spiritual and eternal; I was exceedingly inclined to a vehement Love to those that I thought the most serious Saints, and especially to that intimacy with someone, which is called Friendship. By which I found extraordinary benefit, and it became a special mercy to my soul. But it was by more than one or two of the fore-mentioned ways, that the strict bond of extraordinary Friendship hath been relaxed, and my own excessive esteem of my most intimate friends confuted. And since then I have learned, to love all men according to their real worth, and to let out my love more extensively and without respect of persons, acknowledging all that is good in all; But with a double Love and honor to the excellently wi • e and good: and to value men more for their public usefulness, than for their private suitableness to me; and yet to value the ordinary converse of one or a few suitable friends, before a more public and tumultuary life, except when God is publicly Worshipped, or when public service inviteth me to deny the quiet of a private life; And though I more difference between man and man than ever, I do it not upon so slight and insufficient grounds as in the time of my inexperienced credulity: nor do I expect to find any without the defects, and blots and failings of infirm, imperfect, mutable man.

Quest. 10. What qualifications should Direct us in the choice of a special bosom friend.

Answ. 1. He must be one that is sincere and single hearted, and not given to affectation, or anything that is much forced in his deportment: plain, and open hearted to you, and not addicted to a hiding, fraudulent, or reserved carriage.

2. He must be one that is of a suitable temper and disposition; I mean not guilty of all your own infirmities, but not guilty of a crossness or contrariety of disposition. As if one be in love with plainness of Apparel, and frugality in diet and course of life, and the other be guilty of curiosity, and ostentation and prodigality; If one be for few words and the other for many; If one be for Labor, and the other for Idleness, and frequent interruptions; If one be for serving the humors of men, and the other for a contempt of human censure, in the way of certain duty; these disparities make them unfit for this sort of bosom friendship.

3. He must not be a slave to any vice: For that which maketh him false to God, and to betray his own soul, may make him false to man, and to betray his friend.

4. He must not be a selfish person; that is, corruptly and partially for himself, and for his own Carnal ends and interest. For such a one hath no true love to others, but when you seem cross to his Own interest, his pleasure, wealth, or honor he will forsake you: For so he doth by God himself.

5. He must be Humble, and not notably proud. For Pride will make him quarrelsome, disdainful, impatient, and quite unsuitable to a humble person.

6. He must be one that's thoroughly and resolvedly Godly: For you will hardly well center anywhere but in God; nor will he be useful to all the ends of friendship, if he be not one that Loveth God, and holy things, and is of a pious conversation: Nor can you expect that he that is false to God, and will sell his part in him for the pleasure or gain of sin, should long prove truly faithful unto you.

7. He must be one that is judicious in Religion, that is, not of an erroneous heretical wit; nor ignorant of those great and excellent Truths, which you should ost confer about; But rather one that excelleth you in solid understanding, and true judgment, and a discerning head, that can teach you somewhat which you know not; and is not addicted, to corrupt you with false opinions of his own.

8. He must be one that is not Schismatical and embodied in any dividing Sect: For else he will be no longer true to you, than the interest of his party will allow him: And if you will not follow him in his conceits and singularities, he will withdraw his love, and despise you: And if he do not, yet he may endanger your stedfastness, by the temptation of his love.

9. He must be one that hath no other very intimate friend, unless his friend be also as intimate with you as with him; Because else he will be no further secret and trusty to you, than the interest or will of his other friend will allow him.

10. He must be one that is Prudent in the management of business, and especially those which your converse is concerned in; else his indiscretion in words or practice, will not suffer your friendship to be long entire.

11. He must be one that is not addicted to loquacity, but can keep your secrets: Otherwise he will be so untrustly as to be uncapable of doing the true office of a friend.

12. He must have a zeal and activity in Religion and in all well-doing: Otherwise he will be unfit to warm your affections, and to provoke you to love and good works, and to do the principal works of friendship; but will rather cool and hinder you in your way.

13. He must be one that is not addicted to levity, inconstancy and change: or else you can expect no stability in his friendship.

14. He must not much differ from you in Riches, or in poverty; or in quality in the world. For if he be much Richer, he will be carried away with higher company and converse than yours, and will think you fitter to be his servant, than his friend. And if he be much poorer than you, he will be apt to value your friendship for his own commodity, and you will be still in doubt, whether he be sincere.

15. He must be one that is like to live with you or near you; that you may have the frequent benefit of his converse, counsel, example, and other acts of friendship.

16. He must be one that is not very covetous, or a Lover of Riches or preferment: For such a one will no longer be true to you, than his Mammon will allow him.

17. He must be one that is not peevish, passionate and impatient; but that can both bear with your infirmities, and also bear much from others for your sake, in the exercise of his friendship.

18. He must be one that hath so good an esteem of your person, and so true and strong a Love to you, as will suffice to move him, and hold him to all this.

19. He must be yet of a public Spirit, and a lover of good works, that he may put you on to well doing, and not countenance you in an idle, self-pleasing and unprofitable life. And he ought to be one that is skillful in the business of your Calling, that may be fit to censure your work, and amend it, and direct you in it, and confer about it? And it is best for you if he be one that excelleth you herein, that he may add something to you (But then you will not be such to him, and so the friendship will be unequal).

20. Lastly, There must be some suitableness in Age and Sex. The young want experience to make them meet for the bosom friendship of the aged (though yet they may take delight in instructing them, and doing them good.) And the young are hardly reconcilable to all the gravity of the aged. And it must not be a person of a different sex, unless in case of Marriage: Not but that they may be helpful to each other as Christians, and in a state of distant friendship: But this bosom intimacy, they are utterly unfit for, because of unsuitableness, temptation and scandal.

Directions for the right Use of special Bosom Friendship.

Direct. 1. ENgage not yourself to any one, as a bosom friend, without great evidence and proof of his fitness in all the foregoing qualifications. By which you may see, that this is not an ordinary way of duty or benefit, but a very unusual case. For it is a hard thing to meet with one among many thousands, that hath all these qualifications: And when that is done, if you have not all the same qualifications to him, you will be unmeet for his friendship, what ever he be for yours. And where in an age will there be two that are suited in all those respects? Therefore our ordinary way of duty is, to love all according to their various worth, and to make the best use we can of every ones grace and gifts, and of those most that are nearest us; but without the partiality of such extraordinary affection to any one above all the rest. For young persons usually make their choice rashly, of one that afterwards proveth utterly unmeet for the Office of such a friend, or at least, no better than many other persons: Nay, ten to one, but after experience will acquaint them with many that are much wiser, and better, and fitter for their love. And hasty affections, are guilty of blind partiality, and run men into sin and sorrow, and often end in unpleasant ruptures. Therefore be not too forward in this friendship.

Direct. 2. When you do choose a friend, though he must be one that you have no cause to be suspicious of, yet reckon that it is possible that he may be estranged from you, yea, and turn your enemy. Causeless jealousies are contrary to friendship on your part; and if there be Cause, it is inconsistent with friendship on his part. But yet no friendship should make you blind, and not to know that man is a corrupt and mutable creature; especially in such an age as this, wherein we have seen, how personal Changes, State-changes, and changes in Religion, have alienated many seeming friends. Therefore Love them, and Use them, and Trust them, but as men, that may possibly fail all your expectations, and open all your secrets, and betray you, yea, and turn your enemies. Suspect it not, but judge it possible.

Direct. 3. Be open with your approved friend, and commit all your secrets to him, still excepting those, the knowledge of which may be hurtful to himself, or the revealing of them hereafter may be intollerably injurious to yourself, to the honor of Religion, to the public good, or to any other. If you be needlessly close, you are neither friendly, nor can you improve your friend enough to your own advantage. But yet if you open all without exception, you may many ways be injurious to your friend and to yourself; and the day may come which you did not look for, in which his weakness, passion, interest, or alienation, may trouble you by making all public to the world.

Direct. 4. Use as little affectation or ceremony with your friend as may be; but let all your converse with him be with openness of heart, that he may see that you both trust him, and deal with him in plain sincerity. If dissimulation and forced affectation be but once discovered, it tendeth to breed a constant diffidence and suspicion. And if it be an infirmity of your own which you think needeth such a cover, the Cloak will be of worse effect, than the knowledge of your infirmity.

Direct. 5. Be ever faithful to your friend, for the cure of all his faults; and never turn friendship into flattery: yet still let all be done in Love, though in a friendly freedom, and closeness of admonition. It is not the least benefit of intimate friendship, that what an enemy speaketh behind our backs, a friend will open plainly to our faces: To watch over one another daily, and be as a glass to show our faces or faults to one another is the very great benefit of true friendship, Eccles. 4. 9, 10, 11. Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: But woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. It is a flatterer and not a friend, that will please you by concealing or extenuating your sin.

Direct. 6. Abhor Selfishness as most contrary to real friendship. Let your friend be as yourself, and his interest as your own. If we must love our neighbor as ourselves, much more our dearest bosom friends.

Direct. 7. Understand what is most excellent and useful in your friend, and that improve. Much good is lost by a dead hearted companion, that will neither broach the Vessel and draw out that which is ready for their use: nor yet feed any good discourse, by due questions or answers, but stifle all by barren silence. And a dull silent hearer, will weary and silence the speaker at the last.

Direct. 8. Resolve to bear with each others infirmities: Be not too high in your expectations from each other: Look not for exactness and innocence, but for human infirmities, that when they fall out, you may not find yourselves disappointed. Patience is necessary in all human converse.

Direct. 9. Yet do not suffer friendship to blind you, to own or extenuate the faults of your dearest friend: For that will be sinful partiality, and will be greatly injurious to God, and treachery against the soul and safety of your friend.

Direct. 10. And watch lest the love, estimation or reverence of your friend, should draw you to entertain his errors, or to imitate him in any sinful way. It is no part of true friendship to prefer men before the truth of Christ, nor to take any heretical, dividing, or sensual infection from our friend, and so to die and perish with him. Nor is it friendly to desire it.

Direct. 11. Never speak against your friend to a third person; Nor open his dishonorable weakness to another. As no man can serve two Masters; so no man can well please two contrary friends: And if you whisper to one the failings of another, it tendeth directly to the dissolution of your friendship.

Direct. 12. Think not that love will warrant your partial erroneous estimation of your friend: You may judge him fittest for your intimacy: but you must not judge him better than all other men, unless you have special evidence of it, as the reason of such a judgment.

Direct. 13. Let not the love of your friend draw you to love all, or any others the less, and below their worth. Let not friendship make you narrow hearted, and confine your charity to one. But give all their due, in your valuation and your conversation, and exercise as large a charity and benignity as possibly you can: Especially to Societies, Churches and Common-wealth, and to all the world: It is a sinful friendship, which robbeth others of your charity: Especially those to whom much more is due than to your friend.

Direct. 14. Exercise your friendship in Holiness, and well-doing: Kindle in each other the Love of God and Goodness, and provoke each other to a heavenly conversation. The more of God and Heaven is in your friendship, the more holy, safe, and sweet, and durable it will prove. It will not wither, when an everlasting subject is the fuel that maintaineth it. If it will not help you the better to Holiness and to Heaven, it is worth nothing, Eccles. 4. 11. If two lie together, then they have heat; but how can one be warm alone. See that your friendship degenerate not into common carnal love, and evaporate not in a barren converse, instead of prayer and heavenly discourse, and faithful watchfulness and reproof.

Direct. 15. Prepare each other for suffering and death, and dwell together in the house of mourning, where you may remember your nearer everlasting friendship: and not only in the house of mirth, as if it were your▪work, to make each other forget your latter end.

Tit. 1. Cases about loving and doing good to enemies.

Quest. 1. WHom must I account an enemy, and love under that name?

Answ. 1. Not everyone that is angry with you, or that giveth you soul words, or that undervalueth you, or that speaketh against you, or that doth you wrong: But he that hateth you, and seeketh or desireth your destruction o • your hurt as such designedly: 2. And no man must be taken for such, that doth not manifest it, or by whom you cannot prove it. 3. But if you have reasonable suspicion you may carry yourself the more warily for your own preservation, lest he should prove your enemy, and his designs should take you unprovided.

Quest. 2. With what kind of Love must an enemy be loved? and on what accounts?

Answ. Primarily with a love of Complacence, for all the good which is in him, natural or moral: He must be loved as a man for the goodness of his nature; and his understanding and virtues must be acknowledged as freely, and loved as fully, as if he were no enemy of ours: Emnity must not blind and pervert our judgment of him, and hinder us from discerning all that is amiable in him; nor must it corrupt our affections, and hinder us from loving it and him. 2. Secondarily we must love him with a love of benevolence, desiring him all that happiness which we desire to ourselves, and endeavoring it according to our opportunities.

Quest. 3. Must I desire that God will pardon and save him, while he repeuteth not of the wrong he doth me? and being impenitent, is uncapable of pardon?

Answ. 1. You must desire at once that God will give him repentance and forgiveness. 2. If he be impenitent in a state and life of ungodliness, or in a known and willful sin, he is indeed uncapable of God's pardon and salvation in that case: But if you know him not to be ungodly, and if mistake or passion only, or some personal offense or falling out, have made him your enemy; and you are not sure that the enmity is so predominant as to exclude all true charity; or if he think you to be a bad person, and be your enemy on that account, you must pray for his pardon and salvation, though he should not particularly repent.

Quest. 4. What if he be my enemy upon the account of Religion, and so an enemy to God?

Answ. There are too many who have too much enmity to each other, upon the account of different opinions and parties in Religion, in an erroneous zeal for Godliness; who are not to be taken for enemies to God. What acts of hostility have in this age been used by several Sects of zealous Christians, against each other? 2. If you know them to be enemies of God and Godliness, you must hate their sin, and love their humanity and all that is good in them, and wish their repentance, welfare and salvation.

Quest. 5. What must I do for an enemies good, when my benefits are but like to embolden, encourage and enable him to do hurt, to me or others?

Answ. 1. Usually kindness tendeth to convince and melt an enemy, and to hinder him from doing hurt. 2. Such ways of kindness must be chosen, as do most engage an enemy to returns of kindness, without giving him ability or opportunity to do mischief in case he prove implacable. You may show him kindness, without putting a Sword into his hand. Prudence will determine of the way of benefits, upon consideration of circumstances.

Quest. 6. May I not defend myself against an enemy, and hurt him in my own defense? And may I not wish him as much hurt, as I may do him?

Answ. When you can save yourself, by fair words, or flight, or some tolerable loss, without resisting him to his hurt, you should rather choose it, and Resist not evil, Matth. 5. 39. When you cannot do so, you must defend yourself, with as little hurt to your enemy as you can. And if you cannot save yourself from a lesser hurt, without doing him a greater, you must rather suffer it.

Object. But if I hurt him in my own defense, it is his own fault.

Answ. So it may, and yet be yours too: you are bound to Charity to your enemy, and not to Justice only.

Object. But if I run away from him, or resist him not, it will be my dishonor: And I may defend my honor as well as my life.

Answ. Such objections and reasonings (which the Jesuits use against Jesus,) were fitter for the mouth of an Atheist, than of a Christian. It is Pride which setteth so much by the esteem of men, yea, of bad and foolish men, as to plead Honor for uncharitableness: And the voice of Pride is the voice of the Devil, contrary to him who made himself of no reputation, Phil. 2. 7, 8. and submitted to be arrayed in a garb of mockery, and led out with scorn like a fool, and bowed to, and buffeted and spit upon, and crucified; who calleth to us to learn of him to be meek and lowly and to deny ourselves, and take up the Cross (which is shameful suffering ) if we will be his disciples, Matth. 11. 28, 29. Luke 14. 30, 32▪ 33. To every Christian it is the greatest honor to be like Jesus Christ, and to excel in Charity. It is a greater dishonor to want Love to an enemy, than to fly from him, or not resist him. He that teacheth otherwise, and maketh sin honorable, and the imitation and obedience of Christ to be more dishonorable, doth preach up Pride, and preach down Charity, and doth preach for the Devil against Jesus Christ: and therefore should neither call himself a Jesuit nor a Christian.

Yea more, if the person that would hurt or kill you be one that is of more worth and usefulness as to the public good, you should rather suffer by him, or be slain by him, than you should equally hurt him, or kill him in your own defense. As if the King of another Kingdom that hath no authority over you (for of your own there is no question) should assault you? Or any one whose death would be a greater loss than yours. For the public good is better than your own.

And it will not always hold, that you may wish another as much hurt as you may do him: For in defending yourself, you may sometime blamelessly do more hurt than you were willing to do. And you must never wish your enemies hurt as such, but only as a necessary means of good, as of preservation of himself, or you, or others.

Quest. 7. Must Kings and States Love their enemies? How then can War be lawful?

Answ. Kings and States are bound to it as much as private men: And therefore must observe the foresaid Laws of Love as well as others. Therefore they must raise no War unnecessarily, nor for any cause, be it never so just in itself, when the benefits of the War are not like to be a greater good, than the War will bring hurt both to friends and foes set together. A lawful offensive War is almost like a true General Council: On certain suppositions such a thing may be: But whether ever the world saw such a thing, or whether ever such suppositions will come to existence, is the question.

Tit. 2. Motives to Love and do good to Enemies.

Motive 1. GOd loveth his enemies, and doth them good: and he is our best exemplar: Matth. 5. 45, 46▪ But I say unto you, Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven: For he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on good, and sendeth rain on the▪ just and on the unjust.

Mot. 2. Jesus Christ was incarnate to set us a pattern, especially of this virtue: He sought the salvation of his enemies: he went up and down doing good among them. He died for his enemies: He prayeth for them even in his sufferings on the Cross: He wept over them when he foresaw their ruin. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. This is the pattern which we must imitate.

Mot. 3. God loved even us ourselves when we were his enemies: Or else what had become of us? And Christ died even for us, as enemies, to reconcile us by his death to God, Rom. 5. 9, 10. Therefore we are specially obliged to this duty.

Mot. 4. To be God's Enemies is to be wicked and unlovely; so that in such God could see nothing amiable, but our Nature and those poor remainders of virtue in it; and our capacity of being made better by his grace: and yet he then loved us: But to be an enemy to you or me, is not to be ungodly or wicked as such: It is an enmity but against a vile unworthy Worm, and therefore is a smaller fault.

Mot. 5. We do more against ourselves than any Enemy or Devils, and yet we love ourselves: why then should we not love another who doth less against us.

Mot. 6. All that is of God and is good must be loved: But there may be much of God and much natural and moral good in some enemies of ours.

Mot. 7. To Love an enemy signifieth a mind that is impartial, and loveth purely on God's account, and for Goodness sake: But the contrary showeth a selfish mind, that loveth only on his own account.

Mot. 8. If you love only those that love you, you do no more than the worst man in the world may do: But Christians must do more than others. Mat. 5. 47. or else they must expect no more than others.

Mot. 9. Loving and doing good to enemies is the way to win them and to save them. If there be any spark of true humanity left in them, they will love you when they perceive indeed that you love them. A man can hardly continue long to hate him whom he perceiveth unfeignedly to love him. And this will draw him to love Religion for your sake, when he discerneth the fruits of it.

Mot. If he be implacable, it will put you into a condition fit for God to own you in, and to judge you accordingly to your innocence. These two together contain the sense of heaping coals of fire on his head: that is, q. d. If he be not implacable, you will melt and win him: and if he be implacable, you will engage God in your cause, who best knoweth when and how to revenge.

Tit. 3. Directions for Loving and doing good to Enemies.

Direct. 1. MAke no man your enemy, so far as you can avoid it: For though you may pretend to Love him when he is your enemy, you have done contrary to Love in making him your enemy: For thereby he is deprived of his own Love to you: And if his Charity be his best commodity, then he that robbeth him (though he be never so culpable himself) hath done that which belongeth to the worst of enemies: It is a thousand times greater hurt and loss to him, to lose his own Love to others, than to lose another's love to him: And therefore to make him hate you; is more injurious or hurtful to him, than to hate him.

Direct. 2. Take not those for your enemies that are not; and believe not any one to be your enemy, till cogent evidence constrain you: Take heed therefore of ill suspicious and ungrounded censures; except defensively so far only as to secure yourselves or others, from a possible hurt.

Direct. 3. Be not desirous or inquisitive to know what men think or say of you (unless in some special case where your duty or safety requireth it:) For if they say well of you, it is a temptation to pride, and if they say ill of you, it may abate your love and tend to enmity: Eccles. 7. 21. Also take no heed to all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: For ofttimes also thy own heart knoweth, that thou thyself likewise hast cursed (or spoken evil of) others. It is strange to see how the folly of men is pleased with their own temptations?

Direct. 4. Frown away those flatterers and whisperers, who would aggravate other men's enmity to you or injuries against you? and think to please you by telling you needlessly of other men's wrongs. While they seem to show themselves enemies to your enemies, indeed they show themselves enemies consequently to yourselves: For it is your destruction that they endeavor, in the destruction of your Love: Prov. 16. 28. If a whisperer separate chief friends, much more may he abate your love to enemies: Let him therefore be entertained as he deserveth.

Direct. 5. Study and search and hearken after all the good which is in your enemies. For nothing will be the object of your Love, but some discerned good. Hearken not to them that would extenuate and hide the good that is in them.

Direct. 6. Consider much how capable your enemy (and God's Enemy ) is of being better. And for ought you know God may make him much better than yourselves! Remember Paul's case: And when such a one is converted, forethink how penitent and humble, how thankful and holy, how useful and serviceable he may be? And love him as he is capable of becoming so lovely to God and man.

Direct. 7. Hide not your love to your enemies, and let not your minds be satisfied that you are Conscious that you love them: But manifest it to them by all just and prudent means: For else you are so uncharitable as to leave them in their enmity, and not to do your part to cure it. If you could help them against hunger and nakedness and will not, how can you truly say you love them? And if you could help them against malice and uncharitableness and will not, how can you think but this is worse? If they knew that you love them unfeignedly as you will say you do, it's two to one but they would abate their enmity.

Direct. 8. Be not unnecessarily strange to your enemies; but be as familiar with them as well you can. For distance and strangeness cherish suspicious and false reports, and enmity: And converse in kind familiarity, hath a wonderful power to reconcile.

Direct. 9. Abhor above all enemies, that pride of heart, which scorneth to stoop to others for love and peace. It is a Devilish language, to say, Shall I stoop or crowch to such a fellow? I scorn to be so base. Humility must teach you to give place to the pride and wrath of others, and to confess it when you have wronged them, and ask them forgiveness: And if they have done the wrong to you, yet must you not refuse to be the first movers and seekers for reconciliation. Though I know that this rule hath some exceptions (as when the enemies of Religion or us are so malicious and implacable, that they will but make a scorn of our submission, and in other cases, when it is like to do more harm than good; it is then lawful to retire ourselves from malice.

Direct. 10. However let the Enmity be in them alone: Watch your own hearts with a double carefulness, as knowing what your temptation is; and see that you Love them, whether they will love you or not.

Direct. 11. Do all the good for them that lawfully you can. For benefits melt and reconcile: And hold on though ingratitude discourage you.

Direct. 12. Do them good first in those things that they are most capable of valuing and relishing. That is (ordinarily) in corporal commodities: or if it be not in your power to do it yourselves, provoke others to do it (if there be need) And then they will be prepared for greater benefits.

Direct. 13. But stop not in your enemies corporal good, and in his reconciliation to yourself: For then it will appear to be all but a selfish design which you are about. But labor to reconcile him to God, and save his soul, and then it will appear to be the Love of God, and him that moved you.

Direct. 14. But still remember that you are not bound to Love an enemy as a friend, but as a man so qualified as he is; nor to Love a wicked man who is an Enemy to Godliness, as if he were a Godly man: but only as one that is capable of being Godly. This precept of Loving enemies was never intended for the levelling all men in our Love.

Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Works of Charity.

Quest. 1. WHat are the grounds and reasons and motives to charitable works?

Answ. 1. That doing good doth make us likest to God: He is the universal Father and benefactor to the world: All good is in him or from him, and he that is best and doth most good is likest to him.

2. It is an honorable employment therefore: It is more honorable to be the Best man in the Land, than to be the greatest: Greatness is therefore honorable, because it is an ability to do good: And Wisdom is honorable because it is the skill of doing good: so that Goodness is that end which maketh them honorable, and without respect to which they were as nothing: A power or skill to do mischief is no commendations.

3. Doing good maketh us pleasing and amiable to God: because it maketh us like him; and because it is the fulfilling of his will. God can love nothing but Himself and his own excellencies or image appearing in his works; or his works so far as his attributes appear and are glorified in them.

4. Good works are profitable to men. Tit. 3. 8. Our brethren are the better for them: The bodies of the poor are relieved, and men's souls are saved by them.

5. In doing good to others we do good to ourselves: because we are living members of Christ's body, and by Love and Communion feel their joys, as well as pains: As the hand doth maintain itself by maintaining and comforting the stomach; so doth a Loving Christian by good works.

6. There is in every good nature a singular delight in doing good: It is the pleasantest life in all the World. A Magistrate, a Preacher, a Schoolmaster, a Tutor, a Physician, a Judge, a Lawyer, hath so much true pleasure as his life and labors are successful in doing good: I know that the Conscience of honest endeavors may afford solid comfort to a willing though unsuccessful man: and well-doing may be pleasant though it prove not a doing good to others: But it is a double, yea a multiplied comfort to be successful: It is much if an honest unsuccessful man (a Preacher, a Physician, &c. ) can keep up so much peace as to support him under the grief of his unsuccessfulness: But to see our honest labors prosper and many to be the better for them, is the pleasantest life that man can here hope for.

7. Good works are a comfortable evidence that faith is sincere, and that the heart dissembleth not with God: When as a faith that will not prevail for works of Charity, is dead and ineffectual, and the image o • carcass of faith indeed, and such as God will not accept. I am. 2.

8. We have received so much ourselves from God, as doubleth our obligation to do good to others: Obedience and Gratitude do both require it.

9. We are not sufficient for ourselves, but need others as well as they need us: And therefore as we expect to receive from others, we must accordingly do to them. If the eye will not see for the body, nor the hand work for the body, nor the feet go for it, the body will not afford them nutriment, and they shall receive as they do.

10. Good works are much to the honor of Religion, and consequently of God; and much tend to men's conviction, conversion and salvation. Most men will judge of the doctrine by the fruits. Mat. 5. 16, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.

11. Consider how abundantly they are commanded and commended in the word of God. Christ himself hath given us the pattern of his own life, which from his first moral actions to his last, was nothing but doing good and bearing evil. He made Love the fulfilling of his Law, and the works of Love the genuine fruits of Christianity, and an acceptable sacrifice to God. Gal. 6. 10. As we have opportunity let us do good to all men, especially to them of the household of faith. Heb. 13. 16. To do good and communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased: Tit. 3. 8. This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou constantly affirm, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works▪ These things are good and profitable to men. Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Tit. 2. 14. To purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Act. 20. 35. So laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Ephes. 4. 28. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. You see poor laborers are not excepted, from the command of helping others: In so much that the first Church sold all their possessions, and had all things common; not to teach levelling and condemn propriety, but to show all after them that Christian Love should use all to relieve their brethren as themselves.

12. Consider that God will in a special manner judge us at the last day according to our works, and especially our works of Charity: As in Matth. 25. Christ hath purposely and plainly shown; and so doth many another text of Scripture. These are the Motives to works of Love.

Quest. 2. What is a good work, even such as God hath promised to reward?

Answ. 1. The matter must be lawful, and not a sin. 2. It must tend to a good effect, for the benefit of man, and the honor of God. 3. It must have a good end; even the pleasing and Glory of God, and the good of ourselves and others. 4. It must come from a right principle, even from the Love of God, and of man for his sake. 5. It must be pure and unmixed: If any sin be mixed with it, it is sinful so as to need a pardon: And if sin be predominant in it, it is so far sinful as to be unacceptable to God, in respect to the person, and is turned into sin itself. 6. It must be in season; or else it may sometimes be mixed with sin, and sometimes be evil itself and no good work. 7. It must be comparatively good as well as simply. It must not be a lesser good instead of a greater, or to put off a greater. As to be praying when we should be quenching a fire or saving a man's life. 8. It must be good in a convenient degree. Some degrees are necessary to the Moral being, of a good work, and some to the well being. God must be loved and worshipped as God, and Heaven sought as Heaven, and men's souls and lives must be highly prized and seriously preserved: some sluggish doing of good is but undoing it. 9. It must be done in confidence of the merits of Christ, and presented to God as by his hands, who is our Mediator and Intercessor with the Father.

Quest. 3. What works of Charity should one choose in these times, who would improve his masters talents to his most comfortable account?

Answ. The diversity of men's abilities and opportunities make that to be best for one man which is impossible to another. But I shall name some that are in themselves most beneficial to mankind, that every man may choose the best which he can reach to.

1. The most eminent work of Charity, is the promoting of the Conversion of the Heathen and Infidel parts of the world: To this Princes and men of power and wealth might contribute much if they were willing: especially in those Countries in which they have commerce and send Ambassadors: They might procure the choicest Scholars, to go over with their Ambassadors and learn the languages, and set themselves to this service according to opportunity: Or they might erect a College for the training up of Students purposely for that work, in which they might maintain some Natives procured from the several Infidel Countries (as two or three Persians, as many Indians of Indostan, as many Tartarians, Chinenses, Siamites, &c. ) which might possibly be obtained: and these should teach students their Country languages. But till the Christian world be so happy as to have such Princes, something may be done by Volunteers of lower place and power: As Mr. Wheelock did in translating the New Testament, and Mr. Pococke by the Honorable Mr. Robert Boile's procurement and charge, in translating Grotius de Verit. Christ. Relig. into Arabic, and sending it to Indostan and Persia. And what excellent labor hath good Mr. John Eliots (with some few assistants) bestowed these twenty years and more in New England? where now he hath translated and Printed the whole Scriptures in their Americane tongue, (with a Catechism and Call to the Unconverted) by the help of a press maintained from hence.

2. The attempt of Restoring the Christian Churches to their primitive purity and Unity, according to men's several opportunities, is a most excellent and desirable work: which though the ignorance and wickedness of many, and the implacableness and bloodiness of the carnal proud domineering part, and the too great alienation of some others from them, do make it so difficult as to be next to desperate, at the present, yet is not to be cast off as desperate indeed: For great things have been done by wise and valiant attempts. Princes might do very much to this, if they were both wise and willing. And who knoweth but an age may come that may be so happy? The means and method I would willingly describe, but that this is no fit place or time.

3. The planting of a learned, able, holy, concordant Ministry in a particular Kingdom, and settling the primitive Discipline thereby, is a work also which those Princes may very much promote, whose hearts are set upon it, and who set up no contrary interest against it: But because these lines are never like to be known to Princes (unless by way of accusation), it is private men's works which we must speak to.

4. It is a very good work to procure and maintain a worthy Minister in any of the most ignorant Parishes in these Kingdoms: (of which alas, how many are there): where the skillful preaching of the Gospel is now wanting: or to maintain an assistant in populous Parishes, where one is not able to do the work: or by other just means to promote this service.

5. It is a very good work to set up Free-Schools in populous and in ignorant places; especially in Wales: that all may be taught to read, and some may be prepared for the Universities?

6. It is an excellent work to • ull out some of the choicest wits, among the poorer sort in the Country Schools, who otherwise would wither for want of culture; and to maintain them for Learning in order to the Ministry, with some able godly Tutor in the University, or some Country Minister who is fit and vacant enough thereunto.

7. It is an excellent work to give among poor ignorant people, Bibles and Catechisms, and some plain and godly Books which are most fitted to their use. But it were more excellent to leave a settled revenue for this use (naming the Books, and choosing meet Trustees) that so the Rent might every year furnish a several Parish; which would in short time be a very extensive benefit, and go through many Countries.

8. It is a very good work to set poor men's children Apprentices to honest religious Masters, where they may at once get the blessing to their souls of a godly education, and to their bodies, of an honest way of maintenance.

9. It will not be unacceptable to God, to relieve some of the persons, or poor children, of those very many hundred faithful Ministers of Christ, who are now silenced and destitute of maintenance, many having nothing at all, but what charity sendeth them, to maintain themselves and desolate families, who were wont to exercise charity to the bodies and souls of others. Read Matth. 25. Gal. 6. 5, 6, 7, 8.

10. It is a good work of them who give stocks of money, or yearly rents, to be lent for five, or six, or seven years to young Tradesmen, at their setting up, upon good security; choosing good Trustees, who may choose the fittest persons: And if it be a rent, it will still increase the stock, and if any should break, the loss of it may be born.

11. It would be a very good work for Landlords to improve their interest with their Tenants, to further at once their bodily comfort, and salvation: To hire them by some abatement at their Rent days, to learn Catechisms, and read the Scripture and good Books in their families, and give the Pastor an account of their proficience. Whether the Law will enable them to bind them to any such thing in their Leases, I cannot tell.

12. And the present work of Charity for everyone, is to relieve the most needy which are next at hand. To know what poor families are in greatest want, and to help them as we are able: and to provoke the rich to do that which we cannot do ourselves; and to beg for others: And still to make use of bodily relief, to further the good of their souls; by seconding all with spiritual advice and help.

Quest. 4. In what order are works of Charity to be done? And whom must we prefer when we are unable to accommodate all?

Answ. 1. The most public works must be preferred before private: 2. Works for the soul caeteris paribus before works for the body; And yet bodily benefits in order of time, must oft go first as preparations to the other. 3. Greatest necessities caeteris paribus, must be supplied before lesser: The saving of another's life must be preferred before your own less necessary comforts. 4. Your own and families wants must caeteris paribus be supplied before strangers; even before some that you must love better: Because God hath in point of provision and maintenance, given you a nearer charge of yourselves and families, than of others. 5. Nature also obligeth you to prefer your kindred before strangers, if there be a parity as to other reasons. 6. And caeteris paribus a good man must be preferred before a bad. 7. And yet that charity which is like to tend to the good of the soul as well as of the body, is to be preferred: And in that case ofttimes a bad man is to be preferred, when a greater good is like to be the effect. 8. A friend caeteris paribus, is to be preferred before an enemy: But not when the Good is like to be greater which will follow the relieving of an enemy. Many other rules might be given, but they are laid down already Tom. 1. Cap. where I treat of Good Works: whither I refer you.

Quest. 5. Should I give in my life time, or at my death?

Answ. According as it is like to do most good: But none should needlessly delay. Both is best.

Quest. 6. Should one devote or set by a certain part of daily incomes? Quest. 7. What proportion is a man bound to give to the poor?

Answ. These two Questions having answered in a Letter to Mr. Thomas Gouge now printed, and the Book being not in many hands, I will here recite that Letter as it is published.

I. Before I answer your Question, I shall premise, that I much approve of the way which you insist upon, of setting so much constantly apart as is fit for us to give, that it may be taken by us, to be as a devoted or consecrated thing. And methinks that there is much of a Divine Direction for the time, in 1 Cor. 16. 1, 2. together with the practice of the ancient Church, [ That upon the first day of the week, everyone lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him. ] And it will do much to cure Pharisaical Sabbatizing, when the Lord's Day is statedly used in this, with holy works; and will teach Hypocrites to know what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, Matth. 9. 13. and 12. 7. And that works of Charity are an odour, a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to God, who of the riches of his Glory in Christ, will supply all the need of such, as bring forth such fruit to abound unto their account, Phil. 4. 17, 18, 19. So it be done without any ensnaring vows, or rash engagements to unnecessary things; this constant setting apart a certain proportion for pious and charitable uses, will have these advantages.

• 1. Our distribution will be made deliberately and prudently, when beforehand we study a due proportion, and determine accordingly; whereas they that give only occasionally as some object suddenly inviteth them, will do it at random, without due respect to their own accounts, whether the proportion given be answerable to their own estate and duty.
• 2. This stated way will make men's charity much more extensive: When objects of charity are not in their sight, they will inquire after them, and they will seek for the needy, if the needy seek not unto them: because they have so much by them to dispose of, which is devoted to God. But those who give but as occasional objects draw it from them, will give to none but those that crave, or will pass by many as needy, whom they see not, while they relieve only those few that they hap to see.
• 3. And it will make men's charity also to be more constant, and done obediently as a Christians daily work and duty; when occasional charity will be more rarely and unconstantly exercised. In a word, as the observation of the Lord's Day, which is a stated proportion of time, secureth the holy improvement of our time, much better than if God be served but occasionally, without a stated time; and as a constant stated course of Preaching, excelleth mere occasional exhortations; even so a constant course of Giving, wisely stated, will find out objects, and overcome temptations, and discharge our Duty with much more integrity and success. And if we can easily perceive that occasional Praying will not so well discharge the duty of prayer, as a constant stated course will do; why should we not think the same of occasional Giving, if men did but perceive that Giving according to our ability, is as sure and great a duty as Praying. Now to your Question of the Proportion of our gifts.

II. We must distinguish,

• 1. Between them that have no more than will supply their own, and their families true necessities, and those that have more.
• 2. Between them that have a stock of money which yieldeth them no increase, and those that have more increase by their labor, but little stock.
• 3. Between them whose increase is like to be constant, and theirs that is uncertain, sometime more, and sometime less.
• 4. Between them that have many children, or near kindred, that nature casteth upon them for relief; and those that have few or no children, or have a competent provision for them, and have few needy kindred that they are especially obliged to relieve.
• 5. Between those that live in times and places where the necessities of the poor are very great, or some great works of Piety are in hand: and those that live where the poor are in no great necessity, and no considerable opportunity for any great work of Piety or Charity doth appear. These distinctions premised, I answer as followeth.

1. It is certain that every true Sanctified Christian, hath Devoted himself and all that he hath to God, to be used in obedience to his will, and for his glory, 1 Cor. 6. 19, 20. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Luke 18. 33. The Question therefore is not, Whether the Tenth part of our estate should be devoted to, and employed in the service of God, one way, or other, as he directeth us: For it is out of Question that all is his, and we are but his stewards; and must give account of our stewardship, and of all our receivings, ( Matth. 25.) But the Question is only what proportion is best pleasing to God in our giving to others?

2. A Christian being unseignedly thus resolved in the General, to lay out that he hath or shall have, as God would have him, and to his glory (as near as he can;) his next enquiry must be (for finding out the will of God) to know in the ordinary course of his distribution, where God hath gone before him by any particular prescript, and tied him to one certain way of giving, and where God hath only given him some general Direction, and left him to discern his Duty in particulars, by that general Rule, and the further direction of objects and providence. And in this enquiry he will find,

• 1. That God hath first prescribed to him in Nature, the necessary sustentation of his own life. And,
• 2. The necessary maintenance of his children and family.
• 3. The necessary maintenance of the Preachers of the Gospel, for the Worship of God, and the salvation of men, 1 Cor. 9. Phil. 4. 10, 11, 14, 17, 18. Luke 10. 7. 1 Tim. 5. 17, 18.
• 4. The necessary maintenance of the Common-wealth, and paying tribute to the higher powers, who are the Ministers of God to us for good: attending continually upon this very thing, Rom. 13. 4, 6.
• 5. The saving of the lives of those that are in apparent danger of famine or perishing, within our sight or reach, 1 John 3. 17. Luke 10. 33. Thus far God hath prescribed to us, how he would have us use our estates in an ordinary way. In many other things he hath left us to more General Directions.

3. To know among good works, which is to be preferred it principally concerneth Us next to know, what works do most contribute to our chiefest ends? which God is most honored by? which tend to the greatest good? And here we shall find that caeteris paribus,

• 1. The Souls of men are to be preferred before their Bodies, in estimation and intention: But in time, the Body is oft to be preferred before the Soul, because if the Body be suffered to perish, the helping of the Soul will be past our power.
• 2. And so the Church is finally and estimatively to be preferred before the Common-wealth; but the Common-wealth must be first served in time, when it is necessary to the Churches support and welfare: For the Church will else perish with the Common-wealth.
• 3. The good of many is to be preferred before the Good of few, and public good to be valued above private, Rom. 9. 3.
• 4. A continued good is greater than a short and transitory good. And so necessary is it to have chief respect in all our works to our chiefest end (the greatest good, ) that even when God seemeth to have prescribed to us the way of our expenses, yet that is but as to our ordinary course, for if in an extraordinary case it fall out, that another way is more to God's glory and the common good, it must be then preferred. For all means are to be judged of by the end, and chosen, and used for it. For example, if the good of Church and Common-wealth, or of the souls of many do stand up against our corporal provision of our children or families, it is to be preferred; which is easily proved a fortiore, because it is to be preferred before our own good, even the saving of our lives. A good subject will lose his life to save the life of his King: and a good Soldier will die to save his General, or the Army. And a useless member of the Church should be content to die, if it be necessary to save the life of a Pastor that is greatly useful. If a poor ordinary Christian then had been so put to it, that either Paul or He must famish, no doubt but his ultimate end would have commanded him to prefer the Apostle before himself; So that in extraordinary cases, the end and greatest good must be our guide.

4. Though I may ordinarily prefer my own life • efore another's, yet I must not prefer my mere delight nor health, before another's life: And though men must provide for the lives of their children, before the lives of others, yet the life of a poor neighbor ( caeteris paribus, ) must be preferred and provided for, before the portions of your own children, and before the supply of their tolerable wants: So that as long as there are poor about you, that are in necessity of food to save their lives, the portions or comliest clothing of your children, must rather be neglected, than the poor be suffered to perish. How else do I love my neighbor as myself, if I make so great a difference between myself and him?

5. Even the food and raiment, and other necessaries which a Christian useth himself, he must use for God, and not for his carnal self at all; not taking it as his own, which he may use at and for his own pleasure, but as part of his Masters goods, which are all to be used only for his service. As a steward, that when he giveth every servant his part, and taketh his own part, it is not as if it were primarily his own, but as a servant, on the same account with the rest. So when I devote all that I have to God, I am so far from excepting my own part, even my food and raiment, that I do more confidently intend the serving of God with that, than with the rest, because it is more in my power, and there is in it more of my duty. The same I may say of that which is given to our children and other relations.

6. Therefore when more of the service and interest of God, lieth upon your own, or your children's using of his talents, than upon other men's, you are bound (for God, and not for yourselves,) to retain so much the more to yourselves and children. It is a fond conceit that a man is bound to give all to others, rather than to himself or children, when it is most probable, that those others, would do God less service with it, than himself or his children would do: As suppose such a man as Mr. Elliot in New England (that devoteth himself to the Conversion of the Indians ) had riches, when some neighbor Ministers were poor, that are engaged in no such work: He that knoweth that God hath given him a heart and an opportunity to do him more service with it than another would do, is not bound to put it out of his own hands into another's, that is less like to be a faithful improver of it. If you have a Son of your own that is a Preacher of the Gospel, and is more able and serviceable than other Ministers in equal want, no doubt you have then a double obligation to relieve your own Son before another; as he is your Son, and as he is more serviceable to God. If other men are bound to supply your want for the work and interest of the Gospel, you are not bound to give away your own supplies, to the disabling you from your work, unless when you see a greater work, or the present absolute necessity of others, doth require it.

7. It is imprudent and unsafe, and therefore unlawful, ordinarily, to tie yourself unchangeably for continuance, to any one particular way of using your estates for God: As to vow that you will give it to Ministers, or to the poor, or to Schools, &c. because the changes may be such which God will make, as shall make that way to be one year necessary, which before was not, and so change your duty. We cannot prescribe to God what way he shall appoint us for the future, to use his talents in. His Word bids us prefer the greatest good; but which is the greatest, his providence must tell us.

8. He that hath no more than is necessary to the very preservation of his own life and his families, is not bound to give to others (unless in some extraordinary case, which calleth him to prefer a greater and more public good:) And he that hath no more than is needful, to the comfortable support of himself and family, is not bound to relieve those that have no greater wants than himself. And his own necessity is not to be measured merely by what he hath, but by the use he hath for it: For a Magistrate, or one that is engaged in public works, may have as much need of many hundreds a year, as a private man of many pounds.

9. Those that have many children to provide for, or poor kindred that nature casteth on them, cannot give so much (proportionably▪) to other poor, as those are bound to do that have few or none: For these are bound to give all, except their personal necessaries, to public, pious, or charitable works, because God calleth not for it any other way.

10. To pamper the flesh, is a sin as well in the Rich, as in the Poor: The Rich therefore are bound not only to give all that the flesh can spare, when its own inordinate desires are satisfied, but to deny themselves, and mortify the flesh, and be good husbands for God, and studiousness to retrench all unnecessary expenses, and to live Laboriously and Thriftily, that they may have the more to do good with. It is a great extenuation of the largest gifts, as to God's esteem, when they are but the leavings of the flesh, and are given out of men's abundance, and when we offer that to God, that costeth us nothing: As Christ doth purposely determine the case, Luke 21. 1, 2, 3, 4. comparing the Rich man's gifts, with the Widows two mites, he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor Widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury, hath cast in all the living that she had (that is, all the stock she had beforehand, though she had need of it herself.) It is a very considerable thing in our charity, how much mortification and self-denial is expressed in it, and how much it costeth our own flesh, to give to others. And therefore they that think they are excused from doing good to others, as long as they have any need of it themselves, and will give nothing but what they have no need of (it being not of absolute necessity to their lives ) do offer a sacrifice of no great value in the eyes of God. What then shall we say of them, that will not give even out of their abundance, and that which without any suffering they may spare.

11. The first and principal thing to be done by one, that would give as God would have him, is, to get a truly charitable heart, which containeth all •• ese parts,

• 1. That we see God in his needy creatures, and •• his cause or work that needs our help.
• 2. That we be sensible of his abundant love in Christ to us, in giving pardon and eternal life; and that from the sense of this our thankful hearts are moved to do good to others.
• 3. That therefore we do it ultimately, as to Christ himself; who taketh that which is done for his cause and servants, as done to him, Matth. 25. 40.
• 4. That we conquer the cursed sin of selfishness, which makes men little regard any but themselves.
• 5. That we love our Neighbors as ourselves, and love most, where there is most of God and goodness, and not according to self-interest: And that as members of the same Body, we take our brethren's wants and sufferings as our own; and then we should be as ready to help them as ourselves.
• 6. That we know the vanity of worldly riches, and be not earthly-minded, but regard the interest of God and our souls, above all the treasures of the world.

• 7. That we unfeignedly believe the promises of God, who hath engaged himself to provide for us, and everlastingly to reward us in glory with himself. If these seven qualifications be wrought upon the Heart, good works will plentifully follow. Make▪ but the Tree good, and the fruit will be good. But when the Heart is void of the root and life which should produce them, the Judgment will not be persuaded that so much is necessary, and required of us; and the will itself will still hang back, and be delaying to do good, and doing all pinchingly and hypocritically, with unwillingness and distrust.

  No wonder if good works are so rare, when it is evident that to do them sincerely and heartily as our Trade and business, it is necessary that the whole soul be thus renewed, by faith, and love, and self-denial, and mortification, and by a Heavenly hope and mind. They are the fruits and works of the new creature (which, is alas, too rare in the world:) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them, Ephes. 2. 10. Therefore our first and chiefest labor should be to be sure that we are furnished with such hearts, and then if we have wherewith to do good, such hearts will be sure to do it; Such hearts will best discern the time and measure, as a healthful man's appetite will in eating: For they will take it for a mercy and happiness to do good, and know, that it is they that give, that are the great receivers. It is but a little money or alms, that the poor receive of us, but it is God's acceptance, and favor, and reward that w • receive, which is in this life a hundred fold (in value) and in the world to come eternal life, Matth. 19. 29. But if we have but little or nothing to give, such a heart is accepted, as if we had given as much as we desire to give; so that if you have a heart that would give thousands if you had it, God will set down upon your account, so many thousands given (in desire.) Your two mites shall be valued above all the superfluities of sensual worldlings: For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not: 2 Cor. 8. 12. But God taketh not that for a willing mind, which only saith, I would give if I should suffer nothing by it myself, or were sure I should not want: But that which saith, I will serve God as well as I can with my estate while I have it, and deny my flesh, that I may have to do good with, and trust God for my provision and reward; for if there be a readiness to will, there will be a performance also out of that which you have, 2 Cor. 8. 11.

12. Such a holy self-denying Charitable heart, with the help of prudence, is the best Judge of the due Proportion which we should give: For this willing readiness being supposed, Prudence will discern the fittest objects, and the fittest time, and the fittest measure, and will suit the means unto the end: When once a man's heart is set upon doing good, it will not be very hard to perceive how much ourselves, our families, the poor, and religious uses should have; for if such a person be Prudent himself, he hath always with him, a constant Counselor, with a general Rule, and directing Providence: If he want Prudence sufficient to be his own Director, he will take Direction from the Prudence of others.

13. Such a truly willing mind, will not be much wanting in the General, of doing good, but one way or other, will serve God with his estate; and then if in any particulars he should come short, it will comparatively be a very small sin, when it is not for want of willingness, but of skill. The will is the chief seat of all moral good and evil: There is no more virtue than there is will, nor no more sin or vice, than there is will. He that knoweth not how much he should give, because he is not willing to give it, and therefore not willing to know it, is indeed the miser and sinfully ignorant; but if it be not for want of a willing mind that we mistake the proportion, it will be a very pardonable mistake.

14. Your proportion of the Tenth part, is too much for some, and much too little for others, but for the most, I think it as likely a proportion as it is fit for another to prescribe in particular, with these following explications.

• 1. He that hath a full stock of money, and no increase by it, must give proportionably out of his stock; when he that hath little or no stock, but the • ruits of his daily industry and labor, may possibly be bound to give less than the other.
• 2. It is not the Tenth of our increase, deducting first all our families provision, that you mean when you direct to give the Tenth (for it is far more, if not all, that after such provision must be given;) But it is the Tenth without deduction that you mean: Therefore when family necessaries cannot spare the Tenth, it may be too much (else even the Receivers must all be Givers:) But when family necessities can spare much more than the Tenth, then the Tenth is not enough.
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• 3. In those places where Church, and State and poor, are all to be maintained by free gift, there the Tenth of our increase is far too little, for those that have anything considerable to spare, to give to all these uses.

  This is apparent in that the Tenths alone were not thought enough even in the time of the Law, to give towards the public worship of God: For beside the Tenths, there were the first fruits, and oblations, and many sorts of sacrifices; and yet at the same time, the Poor were to be maintained by liberal gifts beside the Tenths; And though we read not of much given to the maintenance of their Rulers and Magistrates, before they chose to have a King, yet afterwards we read of much; And before, the charges of wars and public works, lay upon all.

  In most places with us, the public Ministry is maintained by Glebe and Tythes, which are none of the people's gift at all; for he that sold, or leased them their lands, did suppose that Tythes were to be paid out of it, and therefore they paid a Tenth part less for it, in Purchase, Fines, or Rents, than otherwise they should have done; so that I reckon, that most of them give little or nothing to the Minister at all. Therefore they may the better give so much the more to the needy, and to other charitable uses. But where